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Do not go gentle into that good night

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Poet Dylan Thomas c. 1937–1938

"Do not go gentle into that good night" is a poem in the form of a villanelle by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas (1914–1953), and is one of his best-known works.[1] Though first published in the journal Botteghe Oscure in 1951,[2] Thomas wrote the poem in 1947 while visiting Florence with his family. The poem was subsequently included, alongside other works by Thomas, in In Country Sleep, and Other Poems (New Directions, 1952)[1] and Collected Poems, 1934–1952 (Dent, 1952).[3] The poem entered the public domain on 1 January 2024.[4]

It has been suggested that the poem was written for Thomas's dying father, although he did not die until just before Christmas in 1952.[5][6] It has no title other than its first line, "Do not go gentle into that good night", a line that appears as a refrain throughout the poem along with its other refrain, "Rage, rage against the dying of the light".

Poem

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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.[7]

Form

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Main article: Villanelle

The villanelle consists of five stanzas of three lines (tercets) followed by a single stanza of four lines (a quatrain) for a total of nineteen lines.[8] It is structured by two repeating rhymes and two refrains: the first line of the first stanza serves as the last line of the second and fourth stanzas, and the third line of the first stanza serves as the last line of the third and fifth stanzas.[8]

Analysis

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Summary

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In the first stanza, the speaker encourages his father not to "go gentle into that good night" but rather to "rage, rage against the dying of the light." Then, in the subsequent stanzas, he proceeds to list all manner of men, using terms such as "wise", "good", "wild", and "grave" as descriptors, who, in their own respective ways, embody the refrains of the poem. In the final stanza, the speaker implores his father, whom he observes upon a "sad height", begging him to "Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears", and reiterates the refrains once more.

Literary opinion

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While this poem has inspired a significant amount of unique discussion and analysis from such critics as Seamus Heaney, Jonathan Westphal, and Walford Davies, some interpretations of the poem's meaning are under general consensus. "This is obviously a threshold poem about death",[9] Heaney writes, and Westphal agrees, noting that "[Thomas] is advocating active resistance to death."[10] Heaney thinks that the poem's structure as a villanelle "[turns] upon itself, advancing and retiring to and from a resolution"[9] in order to convey "a vivid figure of the union of opposites"[9] that encapsulates "the balance between natural grief and the recognition of necessity which pervades the poem as a whole."[9]  

Westphal writes that the "sad height" Thomas refers to in line 16 is "of particular importance and interest in appreciating the poem as a whole."[10] He asserts that it was not a literal structure, such as a bier, not only because of the literal fact that Thomas' father died after the poem's publication, but also because "it would be pointless for Thomas to advise his father not to 'go gentle' if he were already dead ..."[10] Instead, he thinks that Thomas' phrase refers to "a metaphorical plateau of aloneness and loneliness before death".[10] In his 2014 "Writers of Wales" biography of Thomas, Davies disagrees, instead believing that the imagery is more allusive in nature, and that it "clearly evokes both King Lear on the heath and Gloucester thinking he is at Dover Cliff."[11]

Use and references in other works

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Music

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"Do not go gentle into that good night" was used as the text for Igor Stravinsky's In Memoriam Dylan Thomas (Dirge-Canons and Song) for tenor and chamber ensemble, which was written soon after Thomas's death and first performed in 1954.[12]

Other composers who set the poem to music include Vincent Persichetti (1976),[13] Elliot del Borgo (1979),[14] John Cale (1989, on Words for the Dying),[15] and Janet Owen Thomas (1999, in the final movement of her Under the Skin).[16] Additionally, the poem is read in full on Iggy Pop's album Free (2019).[17]

Art

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"Do not go gentle into that good night" was the inspiration for three paintings by Swansea-born painter and printmaker Ceri Richards, who drew them in 1954, 1956, and 1965 respectively.[18]

Literature

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The poem influenced the writing of Mircea Cărtărescu's novel Solenoid (2015).[19] A phrase from the poem, "dying of the light", has been used in the titles of George R. R. Martin's sci-fi novel Dying of the Light (1977) and a 2014 installment in Derek Landy's Skulduggery Pleasant series.[20]

Film

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The poem is prominently referenced in Interstellar (2014), where the poem is used repeatedly by Michael Caine's character John Brand, as well as by several other supporting characters.[21] Additionally, the poem features in the plot of the films Back to School (1986) and Dangerous Minds (1995).

The poem is referenced in the Doctor Who episode The Shakespeare Code (2007). When the Tenth Doctor quotes the line "Rage, rage against the dying of the light", William Shakespeare responds that he might use that line himself, to which the Doctor responds "You can't. It's someone else's."[22]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Dylan Thomas". Academy of American Poets. Archived from the original on 28 August 2020. Retrieved 1 June 2015. He took his family to Italy, and while in Florence, he wrote In Country Sleep, and Other Poems (Dent, 1952), which includes his most famous poem, 'Do not go gentle into that good night.'
  2. ^ Ferris, Paul (1989). Dylan Thomas. New York: Paragon House Publishers. p. 283. ISBN 9781557782151. OCLC 18560227.
  3. ^ "Collected Poems 1934-1952 by Thomas, Dylan". www.biblio.com. Archived from the original on 28 August 2020. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
  4. ^ "Happy Public Domain Day 2024!". The Public Domain Review. 1 January 2024. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
  5. ^ "Dylan Thomas: Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night". BBC Wales. 6 November 2008. Archived from the original on 27 November 2012. Retrieved 18 December 2010.
  6. ^ Thomas, David N. (2008). Fatal Neglect: Who Killed Dylan Thomas?. Seren. p. 19. ISBN 978-1-85411-480-8.
  7. ^ Thomas, Dylan (1953). The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas. New York: New Directions. p. 128.
  8. ^ a b Strand et al. 2001 p. 7
  9. ^ a b c d Heaney, Seamus (23 October 2020), "Dylan the Durable? On Dylan Thomas", The Ordering Mirror, Fordham University Press, pp. 255–275, doi:10.1515/9780823296552-016, ISBN 9780823296552, S2CID 160543415, archived from the original on 11 March 2022, retrieved 31 December 2021
  10. ^ a b c d Westphal, Jonathan (22 October 2015). "Thomas's Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night". The Explicator. 52 (2): 113–115. doi:10.1080/00144940.1994.11484115. ISSN 0014-4940.
  11. ^ Davies, Walford (2014). Dylan Thomas. ISBN 978-1-78316-152-2. OCLC 1162008686. Archived from the original on 11 March 2022. Retrieved 31 December 2021.
  12. ^ Keller, Hans (1955). "In Memoriam Dylan Thomas: Strawinsky's Schoenbergian Technique". Tempo (35): 13–20. doi:10.1017/S0040298200052360. S2CID 143317174.
  13. ^ Hughes, Allen (9 February 1976). "Music: Leonard Raver". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 19 October 2022.
  14. ^ copyright 1979, Shawnee Press.
  15. ^ Schaeffer, John (27 October 2015). "Five Songs For Dylan Thomas". NPR. Archived from the original on 28 August 2020. Retrieved 16 August 2017.
  16. ^ Owen Thomas, Janet (2007) [1999]. Under The Skin for tenor solo and 17 players. Edition Peters. pp. 50–74.
  17. ^ Petrusich, Amanda (29 August 2019). "The Survival of Iggy Pop". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 28 August 2020. Retrieved 19 September 2019.
  18. ^ "Ceri Richards: 'Do not go gentle into that good night' 1956". tate.org.uk/. Archived from the original on 28 August 2020. Retrieved 22 October 2013.
  19. ^ "Een tocht door de ruïnes van Mircea Cărtărescu". De Reactor (in Dutch). 6 October 2022. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  20. ^ "The Dying of the Light". October 2014.
  21. ^ Wade, Chris (5 November 2014). ""Do not go gentle into that good night" in Interstellar, Back to School, and many other movies: the supercut (VIDEO)". Slate. Archived from the original on 28 August 2020. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
  22. ^ "The Doctor Who Transcripts - The Shakespeare Code". www.chakoteya.net. Retrieved 29 November 2024.
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