We don’t know a lot of specifics about the speaker of “Do not go gentle into that good night.” For instance, we don’t know anything about their race or gender. We also know nothing about their socioeconomic background. All we know is that their father has grown to a ripe old age and now nears death. The speaker approaches this difficult situation by addressing their father directly, and they repeatedly insist that he not give up without a fight. The speaker communicates this basic message through the two refrains that structure the poem. The first of these refrains is “Do not go gentle into that good night” (lines 1, 6, 12, and 18), and the second is “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” (lines 3, 9, 15, and 19). When the speaker isn’t explicitly calling on their father to resist death, they describe a series of scenarios where different types of men realize they aren’t ready to let go of life. Despite adopting an impassioned tone to encourage their father’s defiance in the face of death, the speaker is arguably stricken with grief at the anticipation of a loved one’s passing. Ultimately, it’s the speaker who’s resisting death.

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