Do not go gentle into that good night
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.
Notes
The perfect way to start this month can be none other than "Do not go gentle into that good night" by Dylan Thomas. Thomas’s refusal to surrender is not a heavy, desperate clinging to life, but a fierce assertion of vitality against the crushing gravity of the end. True lightness is found in this exact defiance, the radical choice to burn brightly and stay unburdened by the dark, turning a transient existence into a blazing spark. For the self, the poem demands a total casting off of passive neutrality and the polite expectations of the world. It means realizing that when the illusion of permanence fades, the ego is finally liberated to rage, laugh, and exist entirely in the intensity of the passing hour. . //Invocation//lightness// . #poetry #writing #july #lightness #dylanthomas