Dylan Thomas, “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night “:
Ambiguity and contrast in Dylan Thomas’ poem

In many human’s traditions and cultures, Death has always been a central point of interests. Death causes fear among men, which involves everyone to change their point of view about the meaning of life. In “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”, Dylan Thomas tells his thoughts about death to “you, my father” who is about to die. The writer urges him to resist to Death, saying that one should fight, “burn” with life until the last breath. Through specific poetic devices, Thomas creates some ambiguities about the poem meaning. We are going to see which are these ambiguities and for which reasons the poet makes them appear, by looking at the structure of the poem, and then through the words used. The structure of the poem is useful to understand what the text figures out. “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” is a villanelle, a form of poetry which contrasts with the subject the poem expresses. The poem sounds quite like a song, with the two verses “Do not go gentle into that good night” and “Rage, rage against the dying of the light”, repeated as a refrain. Indeed, the refrain symbolizing Death, is coming again and again, as in real life reminding people about their human condition.
The structure supports the idea that people have to fight as much as they can against Death which finally will catch them. The writer creates ambiguity with the words he uses in the poem, as he does with the structure. The entire poem is composed with contradictory vocabulary, as “night” and “day”, “dark” and “light”, “blind” and” “sight”. They display the image of contrast between Death and Life. One irony in the text is the use of “good night” to reveal Death. “Good night” is caring the meaning of death and it is ironic because Dylan Thomas doesn’t accept the idea of dying. At the same time he uses the word “good night”. Perhaps in his mind Death is too negative and by