(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT") "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" was set to music by Igor Stravinsky in 1954 and two years ago by Iggy Pop. VITALE: And pop culture has echoed that cry for seven decades. It's a desperate cry in a way because death will win in the end. And this is just the opposite, saying, don't go. VITALE: Collins says the poem touches everyone who has experienced someone dying, even as it argues against conventional sentiment.ĬOLLINS: It's the common advice these days - when you're with a dying person, you tell them it's OK to go. THOMAS: And you, my father, there on the sad height, curse, bless me now, with your fierce tears, I pray. And this is a very intense deathbed scene. And we have those pathetic and very moving pictures of people at hospital windows or trying to touch fingers through glass. You know, they couldn't go in the hospital. poet laureate Billy Collins.īILLY COLLINS: So many people recently - hundreds of thousands of people were denied a deathbed scene. The poem is especially poignant this year, says former U.S. TOM VITALE, BYLINE: "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" shakes an angry fist at death as the speaker pleads with a dying father to burn and rave at close of day. GARCIA-NAVARRO: Published the year before, the poem was already famous, and its popularity has never waned. In the winter of 1952, Dylan Thomas concluded a reading at New York's 92nd Street Y with one of his newer poems.ĭYLAN THOMAS: And I'd like to end with "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night." And today, we're going to look at one of the most recognizable poems in the English language.
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