Culture Thursday: Do not go gentle Into that good night

For our final Culture Thursday of National Poetry Month, I want to discourse on a poem which moves me every time I read it or hear it recited.

Do not go gentle into that good night, by the genius Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, is a cry against death. It is a cry against the black hole into which memory vanishes. It is a cry to fight until the fight is won or is done. It is a lament for a dying father.

But for me it's more than that, in these perilous times. Rage against the dying of the light which so many work to bring about. Fight, and do not go gently into that night which they have prepared for us. Struggle though all may seem hopeless. We will all go into that good night; that is a human's fate. But it is our work to make sure that the night is for us at the end of our days; those who survive us must have that brilliant light, that light of freedom, that light of peace, that light of a decent human life. Until we go into that good night we must rage and not go gently. We must leave a world better than we found it. Otherwise, the night will be for all.

Here is the poem, read by the poet, and then by that other stellar Welshman, Sir Richard Burton.

Rage against the dying of the light with every breath.

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