to rage or surrender?

One of my clients mentioned a poem to me that I have long loved. It is one of the most famous poems in English. I taught it to teenagers some years back as it appeared on the GCSE syllabus, and it renewed my interest. Then it was in ‘Interstellar'.’ It is the villanelle ‘Do not go gentle into that good night.’

Dylan Thomas wrote this poem for his father, in a heart-cry to the loss of him, entreating him to resist death. The poem has the themes of grief, loss and defiant resistance. The tight structure and strict self-contained rhyme scheme of a villanelle give it an intensity and cyclical quality. If you are interested, read more about the poem and the form here.

I am struck by the idea of ‘raging against’ something. It seems it is not the done thing anymore. These days it is all about acceptance and grace. Usually, it is acquiescence, at least, that is called for, and at best, we strive to open our arms willingly to the changes that come our way, breathing, and bowing our heads in a wise and humble manner. Is there still a place for raging?

When we diligently labour to let go of old family narratives, or society’s narratives, about what we should be doing at a certain age, or with a certain body, or how we should choose to keep or discard a particular relationship structure, job or friendship, are we ‘raging’ or are we ‘surrendering’? Does it matter what we call it?

In the poem, the intensity of the emotion, the power of the symbol of light, the direct command, does fill me with a fist-in-the-air kind of defiance to not give in easily, to set my boundary, to speak my truth. And with a yell!

Sometimes in these days of being kind to ourselves, with ‘I feel..'.’ before every utterance, and self-care and woke sensibilities, it seems like we will upset the delicate balance of the universe if we are ‘negative’ or express rage. But the universe can take it - we can bellow our new story as loud as we like and shake in the new. We don’t always have to surrender.

The world around us is full of the fire of the hurting, and the fear there will be more, and the sting of our compassion in the face of suffering. Maybe we should be raging.

Here is the poem. Even better, listen to Dylan Thomas read his poem here - the crisp control, for me, does not mask his shout.

Dylan Thomas

DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT

Dylan Thomas - 1914-1953

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.