As you state in your question, Dylan Thomas, in his poem
"Do Not Go Gently Into that Good Night," rejects the convential passive approach to
death.
One of the ways that Thomas emphasizes this point is
both extremely simple and extremely effective: he repeats it, in identical words,
numerous times. Each stanza of the poem contains either the phrase "Do not go gentle
into that good night," or "Rage, rage against the dying of that good night." This
simple technique of repetition--known as anaphora--helps Thomas to hammer home his point
in memorable fashion.
Thomas expresses one of your other
points--that people should live their lives to the fullest--through the use of several
striking images. There are:
"Wise men...[whose] words had forked no
lightning";
"Good men...[whose} deeds might have danced in
a green bay";
"Grave men...[whose] eyes could blaze like
meteors."
These images are
much more interesting and memorable than simply saying, "Live life to the
fullest."
Your other point, that emotionality is part of
our humanity, is--of course--a major theme of the poem.
The
poem is about people who, logically speaking, have nothing more to live for. They have
arrived at "old age," "at [the] close of day"; they are "at their end"; they are "near
death."
Yet, the poet urges them to "Rage, rage against the
dying of the light." He does not mean that they should seek some miracle treatment for
their ailments. Rather, he is urging them to react to death with a vigorous emotion of
rebellion.
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