Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night Themes
Mortality
"Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" laments the necessity and inevitability of death, encouraging the aged to rebel against their fate. The poem suggests that (to use an old cliché) we sho...
Old Age
"Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" is the speaker's exploration of what it means to age closer and closer to an inevitable death, especially if the aging person becomes frail and starts to los...
Transience
Transience in "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" causes the speaker a lot of anxiety. It worries him that there are things people might have been able to do in the world if only they had been...
Wisdom and Knowledge
We often think of wise people as calm, cool, and collected, but in "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night," wisdom means a determination to struggle. Even if the struggle isn't pretty, even if it m...
Family
Spoken by a son to his dying father, "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" suggests the intensity and power of familial bonds. It also works through a reversal of roles – the son, not the f...