Page 213 - 100 Best Loved Poems - Teaching Unit

“Do Not Go Gentle Into that Good Night”
by Dylan Thomas, page 93

Vocabulary
[none]

1. What is the tone of the poem?

2. What is the “dying of the light”?

3. As the note above the poem suggests, it is an example of a villanelle. A villanelle is a poem
consisting of 19 lines, but only two rhymes. It also repeats two lines throughout the poem.
Why do you think Thomas has chosen to write his poem following the traditional form of a
villanelle?

4. According to the first stanza, what does the speaker seem to be asking? Put your response
in your own words.

5. What kind of men should rage against the dying of the light? What four types of men does
Thomas address?

6. Consider the punctuation used in the first two lines of the poem’s last stanza. What do the
caesurae (commas) suggest about the speaker’s feelings toward his father?

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