Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1951

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Further Reading & Resources

Related Poems

“Fern Hill” by Dylan Thomas (1946)

Another popular poem of Thomas’s is “Fern Hill,” which appeared in his 1946 book Deaths and Entrances. This long poem recounts the speaker’s blissful childhood with a pastoral approach that recalls that of the 19th-century Romantic poets. Important themes include the passage of the time and the importance of appreciating the present moment for the joy it brings. In 2014, the Prince of Wales himself recorded “Fern Hill,” his favorite of all of Dylan Thomas’s poems, to mark National Poetry Day in the United Kingdom.

“The Waking” by Theodore Roethke (1954)

Like “Do not go gentle into that good night,” “The Waking” takes the form of a villanelle. This famous poem also dwells on the uncertainty of existence, with its refrains about sleep, wakefulness, and necessity. Like Thomas, Roethke often explores themes of nature and the details of the poet’s own internal world. In this villanelle, Roethke employs the meditative tone of the poetic form to invite the reader to consider contrasting experiences, much like Thomas explores the tension between life and death in his poem.

“One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop (1976)

Another contemporary of Dylan Thomas was the American poet Elizabeth Bishop. Her villanelle, “One Art,” ranks with Thomas’s villanelle among the best-known uses of the form. This poem treats the concept of losing things with alternately playful, ironic, and mournful tones. Like “Do not go gentle into that good night,” this villanelle is semi-autobiographical, revealing the poet’s own experience with loss.

“Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden (1962)

The beloved poem “Those Winter Sundays,” by American poet Robert Hayden, resembles “Do not go gentle into that good night” for its portrayal of the relationship between a father and his son. Hayden’s speaker takes the role of a son reflecting on his childhood, and particularly on the role of his father in that childhood experience. A mixture of grief and gratitude characterizes the tone of the poem, lending the poem an emotional depth that invites the reader to contemplate the role of one’s parents in one’s adult life.

Further Literary Resources

“Dylan Thomas: Rock ‘n’ roll poet” by Jane Ciabattari (2014)

In this article by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) from 2014, the writer commemorates the 100th birthday of Dylan Thomas. For Ciabattari, the event of his centenary highlights Thomas’s status as a legend in both the United States and the United Kingdom thanks to his talents as both a writer and a speaker of poetry. As the first poet to be recorded by a record label and to tour, Thomas set the standard for spoken-word readings of poetry, which also set the stage for the rise of spoken-word poetry as a cultural event in its own right. In this article rich with personal and literary detail, Ciabattari explains what she means by the title of the article, describing Thomas’s friendships with other important poets like Philip Levine and Robert Lowell, as well as the musical quality of his work.

“The Swansea Boy” by Dan Peipenbring (2014)

In this article in The Paris Review, also published in October 2014, in honor of the poet’s centenary, the writer summarizes Thomas’s unhappy experiences as a 16-year-old journalist for his local newspaper in 1931. While working for the South Wales Daily Post, Thomas gained access to aspects of Swansea community life that he would otherwise not have seen, lending him a deeper understanding of what it means to be Welsh at this time. Quotes from friends of the poet and fellow reporters bring the descriptions of working for the newspaper to life and provide insight into the development of characteristics and habits that Thomas held onto for the rest of his life.

“A Brief History of the White Horse Tavern, NYC’s Legendary Literary Watering Hole” by Paula Mejia (2014)

During his visits to New York City, Dylan Thomas frequented the White Horse Tavern, a saloon in the Greenwich Village neighborhood. Its reputation as a literary hangout endures, even as the tavern gentrifies. A portrait of Dylan Thomas still hangs in the tavern, marking his favorite seat where he imbibed his last drinks before his death at the age of 39. Though Thomas’s death has long been blamed on his alcohol consumption, new evidence claims that his actual cause of death was pneumonia. This article explores the history of the tavern and its cultural importance in the annals of New York City.