Honestly, I think I’ve heard the line referenced in at least two or three recent movie previews as well as in other entertainment venues – set aside the obvious Interstellar reference. Since the line seems so popular these days, I thought it would be good to share the whole poem from which the line comes.
The poet is Dylan Thomas (1914-1953) and the poem is “Do not go gentle into that good night”. Biography.com provides some background on Thomas below and at this link.
“Born in 1914, Welshman Dylan Thomas left school at age 16 to become a reporter and writer. His most famous poem, ‘Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night,’ was published in 1952, but his reputation was solidified years earlier. Thomas’s prose includes Under Milk Wood (1954) and A Child’s Christmas in Wales (1955). Thomas was in high demand for his animated readings, but debt and heavy drinking took their toll, and he died in New York City while on tour in 1953, at age 39.”
Sometimes it is the most troubled souls who write the most compelling literature and poems. You can ponder that while reading the complete poem below:
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.
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