"Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" by Dylan Thomas

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And you, my father, there on the sad height.

This poem is an apostrophe to the speaker's dying ("sad height") father who is calmly letting himself die. The speaker does not agree with the way his father is handling his situation. He wants his father to keep fighting to live- "rage, rage against the dying of the light" (line 3). In the second, third, fourth, and fifth tercets, the speaker mentions "wise men", "good men", "wild men", and "grave men". All of these types of men want different things out of life, yet when they are nearing death, they all fight to live. The speaker mentions all of these types of men to show that basically all men desire to keep living; men do not want to die. The speaker cannot understand why his father would handle this so smoothly and calmly. He thinks people shouldn't just give up so easily- "old age should burn and rave at close of day" (line 3).

Until Next Time,
Alysse