Poetry Analysis Sample

Figurative Language and Poetic Techniques:

Repetition

Lines 1, 6, 12 and 18 are all

the same.

Lines 3, 9, 15 and 19 are all

the same

By repeating the lines “Do not go gentle

into that good night” and “Rage, rage

Calls our attention to the most important

message of the poem. The poet insists by

“Do no go gentle into that

good night”

“Good night” is a metaphor for death.

Therefore, going gentle into that good

night is a metaphor for passively

accepting

death.

Metaphor

“Rage, rage against the dying

of the light”

“dying of the light” is another metaphor

for death. Therefore, the poet is

encouraging his audience to “rage”

against death – that is, to fight and resist

and drawing attention, the way that

lightning does. This means that men

Whose words who have not drawn

enough attention – men who have more

to say – should resist death for there is

more to accomplish in life.

Simile

“Blind eyes could blaze like

meteors and be gay”

This simile compares blind, unseeing

eyes to fiery meteors travelling through

Space. The speaker means that blind