Do not go gentle into that good night
Dylan Thomas Written: 1947 • Published: 1951
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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.
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Curator's Note
Thomas wrote this villanelle as his father was dying, transforming a complex French form into a primal howl against death. The relentless repetition of 'Do not go gentle into that good night' and 'Rage, rage against the dying of the light' pounds like a heartbeat refusing to stop. The poem catalogs different types of men—wise, good, wild, grave—all united in their resistance to extinction. That Thomas chose the villanelle's circular, trap-like form for this subject is perfect: death is inescapable, but we can circle it, delay it, and die fighting. This has become the definitive English-language poem of defiance against mortality.
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