Do not go gentle into that good night

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates "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.<ref name=poets>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Though first published in the journal Botteghe Oscure in 1951,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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)<ref name=poets/> and Collected Poems, 1934–1952 (Dent, 1952).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The poem entered the public domain on 1 January 2024.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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

<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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref></poem>

Form

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} 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.<ref name="Strand et al. 2001 p. 7">Strand et al. 2001 p. 7</ref> 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.<ref name="Strand et al. 2001 p. 7"/>

Analysis

Summary

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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Literary opinion

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",<ref name="auto1">Template:Citation</ref> Heaney writes, and Westphal agrees, noting that "[Thomas] is advocating active resistance to death."<ref name="auto">Template:Cite journal</ref> Heaney thinks that the poem's structure as a villanelle "[turns] upon itself, advancing and retiring to and from a resolution"<ref name="auto1"/> in order to convey "a vivid figure of the union of opposites"<ref name="auto1"/> that encapsulates "the balance between natural grief and the recognition of necessity which pervades the poem as a whole."<ref name="auto1"/>  

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."<ref name="auto"/> 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 ..."<ref name="auto"/> Instead, he thinks that Thomas' phrase refers to "a metaphorical plateau of aloneness and loneliness before death".<ref name="auto"/> 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."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Use and references in other works

Other composers who have set the poem to music include Vincent Persichetti (1976)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Elliot del Borgo (1979),<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> John Cale (1989, on Words for the Dying)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and Janet Owen Thomas (1999, in the final movement of her Under the Skin).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Additionally, lines from the poem are featured in the song "Intro" from G-Eazy's album When It's Dark Out (2015).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The poem is also read in full on Iggy Pop’s album Free (2019).<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Art

"Do not go gentle into that good night" was the inspiration for three paintings by Swansea-born painter and printmaker Ceri Richards, who created them in 1954, 1956, and 1965 respectively.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Literature

The poem influenced the writing of Mircea Cărtărescu's novel Solenoid (2015).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It also gave the title to the ninth book in Derek Landy's Skulduggery Pleasant series The Dying of the Light.Template:Cn

Film

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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

It also features in the 1986 comedy Back to School where Thornton Melon, played by Rodney Dangerfield, is required to recite the poem during an examination.<ref>https://film-authority.com/2024/02/13/back-to-school/</ref><ref>https://manversespoetry.com/2013/05/10/514/</ref><ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTv1Dmu5CYc</ref>

External links

• Hear Dylan Thomas Recite His Classic Poem, “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” (posted at Open Culture, September 19, 2018).
• Template:YouTube - May 2021
• Joe Praml reads 'Do not go gentle into that good night' on Soundcloud - November 2019
• https://poets.org/poem/do-not-go-gentle-good-night