“Do not go gently into that good night”

This is the first line of a famous poem by Dylan Thomas, and is considered one of the best modern poems in the English literature. While it was already well-known and celebrated by many poetry lovers, it was made more famous by Michael Caine’s recitation in the well-known movie “Interstellar”. I love the first three lines of the poem

” 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……”

It is not too long a poem and you should read it even you are not a great poetry lover/fan, The popular belief is that it was written by Dylan for his dying father. Anyway, this is one of his most famous poems, and as already mentioned, is also one of the most read modern poems.

In fact, when I read this poem long ago, I was either (rather surprisingly) less familiar with Lord Tennyson’s Ulysses, or did not quite establish the connection. There are many lines in the famous (my all time favorite) poem that are quite similar.

..”..How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnished, not to shine in use!
As though to breathe were life. Life piled on life
Were all too little, and of one to me
Little remains: but every hour is saved
From that eternal silence, something more, …….”

And then again,

“…. for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.“

The similarity between the two poems, one is everybody’s all time favorite, and the second one a more recent modern poem, got me thinking : how did other poets, like Rabindranath Tagore, felt and expressed about death? Rabindranath faced many deaths in his life, quite early, starting with his mother when he was 14 years old, then her mentor and confidante, Kadambari Devi. Eternally active and busy till his last day of consciousness, Rabindranath viewed and accepted death as a natural end. He wrote the first peom on death early, where he greeted death saying “Death, you are my Shayam (Krishna)”. It was a poem/song by supposedly sang by Radha.

The quiet acceptance of death by Tagore and other Indian philosophers differ dramatically from those in Europe (or, what we called “The West”). In the West, death is not accepted at all, is fought at all cost. It is really important to note that despite this rebellion against death, Europeans fought so many large wars. While India, with its quiet acceptance of death, we have remained largely peaceful.

Return to the poems. “Death lays his icy hands on kings”… so wrote poet Longfellow. Yet, at least in the UK and in the US, there is a tremendous effort to extend life, to fight it till the end, as written long ago by Lord Tennyson. We also fight, but kind of reluctantly. Most of us, we accept “defeat” early, and wait for Nirvana. The differences are really worth pondering. Maybe the idea and belief of “reincarnation” or rebirth plays a role in our passive approach towards the end of life.

Death was also easily accepted, without any “rage” in the Buddhist religion. Much of the teaching of Buddha was to prepare one for death. It is an alternate view of the life and world.

Increasingly we are adopting Western values. In many respects, that probably is not good. But at least fighting, “do not go gently into that good night” I tend to admit the superiority of Western values. This is of course a personal view.

Amen!

Biman Bagchi,

17-05-2024, Bengaluru.

==============================