In Popular Culture
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The poem and in particular its two refrains 'Do not go gentle into that good night' and 'Rage, rage against the dying of the light' have become much quoted in popular culture. Welsh works to use the poem in their titles include the 2001 film Against the Dying of the Light, which commemorated the work of the National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales and 2002 release Do Not Go Gentle. Films to use part of, or a paraphrase from, the poem have included such diverse titles as comedies Dragnet, Back to School, Loose Cannons, The Rundown, high school drama Dangerous Minds and was partially quoted by Bill Pullman in his defiant presidential speech in the 1996 blockbuster action movie Independence Day. The poem has also been sampled in the American play and movie, "Butterflies are Free".
Television writers have also borrowed from the poem, from Doctor Who, Northern Exposure, Rain Shadow, Mad Men, to Family Guy, while the poem's connotation with death and endings was used to effect in the final episodes of both St. Elsewhere and Roseanne.
Plays that are inspired by or thematically linked to the poem include Patricia Cornelius' Do Not Go Gentle and Arthur M. Jolly's Bailing Out.
Do not go gentle into that good night is also quoted in literature; Não entres tão depressa nessa noite escura, a Portuguese interpretation of the iconic first line, is the name of a book by António Lobo Antunes. While the poem is a re-occurring theme and quote in the book "Matched" by Ally Condie.
Musicians have also found themselves drawn to the poem's words. Igor Stravinsky wrote a musical work in 1954 the year after Thomas' death, "In Memoriam Dylan Thomas", that included the poem to commemorate him. Jeannie Lewis sang and recorded the poem in her 1973 album Free Fall Through Featherless Flight, while Elliot del Borgo wrote a piece in 1979 by the same name for full orchestra, using hemiola and hymns in polyrhythms to portray the struggle of the poem in musical form. Thomas' fellow countryman John Cale, set the poem to music in 1989 and performed it at a concert held to celebrate the opening of the National Assembly for Wales. Modern bands to use the work include Brave Saint Saturn, Great Big Sea and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum.
Don Henley and Steven Curtis Chapman borrow from this idea in their song both with the title "I Will Not Go Quietly."
Read more about this topic: Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
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