Do not go gentle into that good night

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Do not go gentle into that good night, a villanelle composed in 1951, is considered to be among the finest works by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas (1914–1953). Originally published in 1952, as part of the collection "In Country Sleep", it is one of his most-quoted works. It was written for his dying father.[1]

Another Welshman, John Cale, set the poem to music in 1989 and performed it at a concert held to celebrate the opening of the National Assembly for Wales.

Elliot del Borgo wrote a piece in 1979 by the same name for full orchestra, using hemiola and hymns in polyrhythms to portray the struggle of the poem in musical form.

A paraphrase of the first line of the poem was made memorable to an unwitting popular audience in the 1997 blockbuster action movie Independence Day (film) during a critical speech by the President Whitmore character (played by Bill Pullman), demonstarting the poem's highy affective rhetorical value. The final line was also borrowed for the title of the 2001 film, Against the Dying of the Light, which commemorated the work of the National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales. The archive houses several rare recordings of Dylan Thomas himself, including his own reading of this very poem. This same line, "Rage, rage against the dying of the light" was also used by the English black metal band Anaal Nathrakh as the title for the last track on their 2004 album Domine Non Es Dignus.

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The Poem

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.
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Analysis

Thomas addresses wise men, good men, wild men, and grave men all with the same message to pursue their passions even in the face of their mortality. The message is not to let your passions be compromised. However, we are subtly reminded throughout that their rage will be ineffectual in the face of death. It is one of his most popular and easily accessible poems.[2]

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External links

There is a setting for solo high voice of "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" by composer Gregory Amerind. More information can be obtained through his publisher at http://grokmusik.com

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