Do not go gentle into that good night

[Kat Kanning]

Was thinking about this poem today, only with the rage against our dying light of freedom, and the death of the old ways of our founding fathers.



    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

[AlanM]

Kat,
I here you. Nice poem. Dylan Thomas was an individualist, if not a libertarian. I have directed his Radio Play "Under Milkwood", and you can here the cries of "Let me be free!" and "Let them be what they will be" throughout it. It is one of my favorites. Captain Cat is a great character.

[Blefuscu]

"Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" is indeed powerful, and full of sorrow, rage, defiance, and lament.  I have always loved it.  But my favorite Dylan Thomas poems are first, "Find Meat on Bones", and second "I Dreamed My Genesis". 

I can relate to these poems on multiple levels.  But foremost at this time, the first urges me to be active in my life, to take charge of it and live it fully, and fearlessly, because time will ravage it eventually, inevitably, and opportunity will be lost.  There is no time like the present, and complacency is the same as denial of self.  The second tells me that I am in control of my destiny, and I can change it.  While I may not be able to redeem years lost to inaction, fear, injury, and profligacy, I can dream a new beginning, and emerge a new man.  I do not believe there is any such thing as a person who cannot change, though for many there may certainly be an absence of will.   

Now I'm not a religious man, but another Dylan I really dig, Bob Dylan, wrote a song called "Slow Train".  Bob recognized a problem.  He started out good when he tried to address it in "Gonna Change My Way of Thinking", but his final conclusion was an abdication of personal responsibility, and an appeal to fear.  Too bad.  He should have gone back and reviewed "Idiot Wind".

[John]

Thanks Kat!

Be sure.
The light is lit anew.
In NH.
As we rage on.

For we, who will not let go
The light will never die.
Not while we live.

And we have childeren to.
Nor in their time.

In their time they will
RAGE ON.