Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

A couple of years ago I came across one of my favourite poems- ‘Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night’, by Dylan Thomas.

The poem goes-

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 that 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.

The original story behind it is the sadness of the poet behind his father’s health and the fact that he was facing death. Dylan wanted his father to be strong and fearless in the face of death.

The original story is indeed powerful, but I see poems as pieces of art that can fit any frame and story by the way you translate the words. I always saw this poem as a gigantic revolutionary sign in the face of quitting, the face of sadness and heartbreak, and every dark emotion that can strike someone so hard they forget how to get back up. You don’t have to be literally dying, that night could be not also the perfect meaning behind death but it could be the death of emotion or soul, it could be the loss of passion, and each and every definition I stated deserves for us to fight as hard, and as forcefully.

I hope you don’t go gentle into that good night, and I hope you never stop raging against the dying of the light.

ELINA KRIMA