Do not go gentle into that good night
Do not go gentle into that good night is a poem in the form of a villanelle by the Welsh writer Dylan Thomas , which was first published in 1951 in the Botteghe Oscure and subsequently appeared in several of his poetry volumes , such as In Country Sleep .
In the poem, a son calls on his dying father to fight for his life and enjoy his last days too. Over time it became one of the most famous, if not the most widely printed, works by Thomas. It has no title, but the first line of verse is used as the title. The last two lines of verse of the poem “ Do not go gentle into that good night / Rage, rage against the dying of the light ” are common knowledge in English-speaking countries.
Curt Meyer-Clason got a German broadcast under the German title Go not easy going into the good night . This translation retained the rhyme scheme and form.
use
- Welsh musician John Cale set the poem to music on his 1989 album Words for the Dying .
- Another setting can be found on the album Letters To a Dream by the Australian musician Louis Tillett .
- In the American-British feature film Interstellar from 2014, the poem appears as a repeatedly recited leitmotif .
- The American rapper G-Eazy used lines from the poem in the intro of his album When It's Dark Out .
- In the US comedy film Do it again, Dad , the protagonist recites this poem in his literary examination.
- In the youth novel " The Selection ", the poem is one of the forbidden poems and is exchanged between the protagonists.
- The poem is quoted twice in " Doctor Who ". Once in season three of the new seasons of David Tennant as Doctor and once in season 9 of Jenna Coleman as Clara Oswald.
- The opening verse "Do not go gentle" is used by the South African author Futhi Ntshingila as the title for her second novel about conditions in the local townships.
- In the second season of the Netflix series "Salvation", Darius Tanz used this quote in his speech to the nation.
- In season 5, episode 29 of the cartoon Adventure Time, Princess Bubblegum quotes a slightly modified version of the penultimate verse: "Don't go ungentle into that good night".
- In 2019, the Norwegian singer Kari Bremnes set the poem to music with Norwegian text under the title Gå ikkje rolig .