Rage against the dying of the light.

Do not go gentle into that good night [A Villanelle]



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, written in 1951 or 1952.


Dylan Thomas was the archetypal Romantic poet: flamboyantly theatrical, a heavy drinker, constantly courting controversy in his private life. "Do not go gentle into that good night" is his most famous poem, with it's immortal last line: "Rage, rage against the dying of the light" which is surely one of the greatest lines ever written...



["Addressed to the poet's father as he approached blindness and death. The relevant aspect of the relationship was Thomas's profound respect for his father's uncompromising independence of mind, now tamed by illness. In the face of strong emotion, the poet sets himself the task of mastering it in the difficult form of the villanelle. Five tercets are followed by a quatrain, with the first and last line of the stanza repeated alternately as the last line of the subsequent stanzas and gathered into a couplet at the end of the quatrain. And all this on only two rhymes. Thomas further compounds his difficulty by having each line contain 10 syllables".] Dylan Thomas: Selected Poems, edited by Walford Davies, JM Dent & Sons Ltd, London, 1974 pp 131-33.



It may well be a considerable literary accomplishment in Dylan Thomas shoehorning his thoughts into the complex prosaic structure of a villanelle. However, it is his achievement in articulating his feelings of outrage and horror at the impending loss of his father that is the reason that he is recognised and remembered and why I have chosen to feature his poem. Whilst there is something unique about his ability to express his sentiments so beautifully, there is nothing unusual about his and his father's predicament. Indeed, with one hundred thousand deaths due to age related conditions every day, this scenario is being played out constantly.



This is why we all should rage against the dying of the light. Both in ourselves and those that we love. We should rage against the misery and pain of old age and the abhorrent waste of human talent.



Every time one of us dies, thousands of precious memories are being washed away like tears in the rain. A hundred thousand of us every day. A treasure trove of wisdom and the beauty of human experience is being lost and wasted every day.



Every generation has had a series of myths and false hopes about eternal life.
From Gilgamesh to Juan Ponce de Leon. However, we live in a new age, with new rules. Rules that we have the opportunity to start making. Medical knowledge is doubling every four years. Change is increasing exponentially. Accelerating intelligence is starting to be applied to the problems of aging. We are the first generation that has a fighting chance of challenging the multitude of negative aspects of aging. We should rail against the diminishment, indignity and isolation of decrepitude, not because life's established order is wrong or unfair, but because we can. By doing so, we can change our lives immeasurably for the better.



We need a culture of rage. Perhaps, for a while, it will be a losing battle.
Perhaps it may ultimately be futile. But I would rather fight a heroic losing battle against aging than go sheepishly along with it. Wouldn't you prefer to "not go gentle into that good night" too?



So, in Dylan's words, let us "burn and rave". Let us fight aging! Bring it on!



It isn't a war in any physical sense - for some it is a challenge of awareness raising and funding. For others it's a cerebral war of the mind and intelligence, about applying new understandings and realisations. Human nature pitting itself against it's own limitations through science. For all of us it is about staying as healthy, happy and motivated as we can and seeing what our endevours bring.



Humans have been battling for centuries with increasing success for mastery over our environment. Science has rewarded us with profound successes. Now, for the first time, using new tools we can look inwards instead of outwards. Through genetics, information technology and nanotechnology, we are grasping for the weapons to battle for mastery over ourselves. This time, it really is personal.



It may take some time. Those of us alive today may not be the ones to benefit.
But our children might be. All of us probably have the same quality of relationship that Dylan Thomas had with his father with someone. Most of us are unable to express these sentiments with Thomas's intensity and clarity. But we all have relationships that are worth fighting to keep alive. If you or anyone else were to have a child that should become a modern day equivalent of Dylan Thomas, I think he or she would approve of fighting for that.



Now is your time to rage against the dying of the light.