Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas - Poetry: The Best Words in the Best Order

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas - Poetry: The Best Words in the Best Order - #BlogchatterA2ZChallenge 2021

- April 05, 2021

DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT

Dylan Thomas

Rob Osborne

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying 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 grieve it on its way,

Do not go gentle into that good night.

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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.

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The Poet: Dylan Thomas (1914 - 1953)

Dylan Thomas is considered as one of the greatest Welsh poets of all times. His poetry was different from that of the works of writers like WH Auden and Stephen Spender, who were more socialistic in their ideas. He was more a Romantic, and his poems shone for their lyricism and their emotional content. Words fascinated him with their sound, rhythm and layers of meanings. Imagination, intuition and emotion played a significant role both in his life and in his writings.

‘Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night’ is a poem with powerful imagery that intersperses light and darkness. In the poem, a son exhorts his aged father to fight against death and not fade away gently into the night. “Old age should burn and rave” and not grow dim and die away. The word ‘Night’ refers to Death and ‘Go Gentle’ means to give up without a fight. It is tragic when a man loses his vitality and vigour as he becomes older and faces death at close quarters.

The poem is significant in that different men are being addressed in the six stanzas… the ‘wise’ man, the ‘good’ man, the ‘wild’ man, the ‘grave’ man and finally, the poet’s father. Each of these men rue that they had not reached their full potential, or fulfillment in life.

The Christopher Nolan movie ‘Interstellar’ used the poem as its #OfficialSoundtrack.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z2y85gW84U

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night - a track by John Lithgow, Ellen Burstyn, Casey Affleck, Jessica Chastain, Matthew McConaughey, Mackenzie Foy from the #OfficialSoundtrack of Interstellar.