Do Not Go Gentile Into The Good Night
Do Not Go Gentile Into The Good Night
Though wise men at their end know Grave men, near death, who see
dark is right, with blinding sight
Because their words had forked no Blind eyes could blaze like meteors
lightning they and be gay,
Do not go gentle into that good Rage, rage against the dying of the
night. light.
Good men, the last wave by, crying And you, my father, there on the sad
how bright height,
Their frail deeds might have danced Curse, bless, me now with your
in a green bay, fierce tears, I pray.
Rage, rage against the dying of the Do not go gentle into that good
light. night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the
light.
As many have written here, it appears that Thomas is writing this prototypical villanelle ode to his sickly,
dying father. Thomas reveals this to the reader in the very last stanza when he writes:
And you, my father, there on the sad height,Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray...
However, Thomas himself lived a life wrought with pain and struggle. He suffered from neuroticism and
mental illness from an early age. He also barely made his ends meet as a writer. He and his family were
regularly on the cusp of poverty, and he would write letters to fellow poets like T.S. Elliot soliciting money.
When he wrote this poem in 1947, he was struggling with severe alcoholism and was in the midst of an
unhappy marriage. His talent and celebrity were at their peak but he wasn't rewarded financially. He was
toiling as a frequent guest reader on BBC Radio. While the amount of airtime helped him gain a healthy
following in London, his managers never gave him a staff job, citing his alcoholism as the reason.
To summarize, the theme of this poem applies to Thomas and his father. Both were struggling to survive.
Do not go gentle into that good night Don't succumb to the peaceful release of death.
Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Interstellar, written by Jonathan and Christopher Nolan. Appropriately, the movie is about mankind's
struggle to overcome imminent extinction.