Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, Dylan Thomas

Like with my post on "You're", I'm not especially familiar with the works of Dylan Thomas. I've never read any of his poems, including this one, so this will be another case of going in blind.

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light

This poem is a villanelle, meaning it has 19 lines, arranged into five tercets and ending with a quatrain. The rhyme scheme is very simple, with the only variation at the very end. it runs:
A
B
A
with an extra B at the end of the quatrain. The lines are in Iambic  Pentameter.

"Do Not Go Gentle..." is a plea against the acceptance of death. The speaker's father is dying, as evidenced in the quatrain (And you, my father, there on that sad height). The speaker is begging his father to keep fighting his fate. He repeats the lines "Do not go gentle into that good night" and "Rage, rage against the dying of the light", pleading with the listener to never stop living. The piece starts by saying that "Old age should burn and rave at close of day", and ends with a prayer that the father of the speaker will rail against his inevitable end.

Up Next: How Do I Love Thee, by Elizabeth Barrett Browning