Thomas contemplates humanity throughout the poem, and offers a look at four types of men as they are on the brink of death, and how they respond to death. Thomas seems to be offering his father the most noble and "right" way to die, or through his metaphors, "go gentle into that good night." While he wants his father to stay with him and remember their time together, he also encourages him to fight, and "rage against the dying of the light."
Thomas gives the impression of being very close to his father, and so naturally he doesn't want him to die. That being the case, Thomas wants his father to fight against his imminent demise with every fiber of his being, to summon up every last ounce of strength in his final struggle upon this earth. Thomas encourages his father by citing a number of examples of men who also "raged against the dying of the light," in other words, refused to give in to their inevitable fate. He doesn't want to grieve for his father, at least not yet. He knows that, like everyone else, his father must one day pass away. But so long as he's still alive, his son wants him to resist death with everything he's got:
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.
https://poets.org/poem/do-not-go-gentle-good-night
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