Compare and contrast the four categories of men present in "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night."

Dylan Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" is a masterful example of the villanelle, a poetic form structured around sequences of repeating lines. In the poem, Thomas references and discusses four types of men: good men, wise men, wild men, and grave men.

The major comparison that can be made between the different types of men is that each of them experiences a major realization upon their respective death beds. The nature of these realizations, however, is different. Wise men, for instance, realize that their "words had forked no lightning" (5), and so it's suggested that wise men's wisdom is not as important in the end as it was perceived to be. In contrast, good men lament "Their frail deeds," (8) and so it seems as though they have failed to live life to the fullest. In the following stanza, wild men mourn the passing of their strength, as they "caught and sang the sun in flight/ And learned, too late, they grieved it on its way" (10). Finally, grave men enjoy the most optimistic epiphany, as they learn "Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay" (14). This quote suggests that a perceived disability, such as blind eyes, is not, in the end, as debilitating as it might have been considered during life.

All in all, each type of man experiences a major insight or realization within the poem. The nature of these realizations differs, although most of them (except for the last one) seem to involve a sudden understanding about a missed or lost opportunity.