Dylan Thomas, Poet

Yesterday I spoke of the anger arising from chronic illness.  Because I am a poetry geek, I decided to dedicate this post to the famous Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, who wrote "Do Not Go Gently Into That Good Night."  Written in 1951 and dedicated to his dying father (the irony does not escape me), it is consided to be Thomas's most famous work.  Indeed, this is the way I want to go out of this world.

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.

 

--Dylan Thomas