Gibbs-Rebellion Poem

“Poetry is man’s rebellion against what he is.” How does poem respond?

Do not go gentle into that good night

Dylan Thomas 

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.

Dylan Thomas' poem is full of raw, passionate emotion. Throughout the entirety of the piece he is protesting death, and encouraging someone, who we find in the end is his father, to "not go gentle", but to fight for life. The fact that he is protesting death, which is inevitable for us all, is his rebellion against who he is. We are all, at the very least, human beings, and as human beings we must one day die and fade into oblivion. Thomas is desperately protesting this event and fighting against something that will one day be his last act. 
His encouragements to "rage, rage against the dying of the light" display his feelings about this unavoidable occurrence, death. Death is a part of Thomas, and all of us. However, in Thomas' case it is more a part of who he is in the moments he was writing because of his focus on it. The thought of death and the fear of it had overtaken him; the fear of the death of his father, and by extension, himself. In his writing, death is his father because it is all he can think of. He wants to fight against it, to rebel against death, and in that way he is rebelling against himself.