Dylan Thomas’s celebrated lines are a powerful companion-piece to yesterday’s poem by W B Yeats.

The defiant tone is the same, though Yeats was unreconciled to his own old age; while in Thomas’s case, the son argues defiance on the part of his father.

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 the 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.