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Poem by Dylan Thomas

"Do not go gentle into that good night" is a poem in the form of a villanelle by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas (1914–1953), and is one of his best known works. Though first published in the journal Botteghe Oscure in 1951, the poem was written in 1947 while Thomas visited Florence with his family. The poem was subsequently included, alongside other works by Thomas, in In Country Sleep, and Other Poems (New Directions, 1952) The poem entered the public domain on 1 January 2024. It has been suggested that the poem was written for Thomas's dying father, although he did not die until just before Christmas in 1952. It has no title other than its first line, "Do not go gentle into that good night", a line that appears as a refrain throughout the poem along with its other refrain, "Rage, rage against the dying of the light".

In the first stanza of "Do Not Go Gentle", the speaker encourages his father not to "go gentle into that good night" but rather to "rage, rage against the dying of the light." Then, in the subsequent stanzas, he proceeds to list all manner of men, using terms such as "wise", "good", "wild", and "grave" as descriptors, who, in their own respective ways, embody the refrains of the poem. In the final stanza, the speaker implores his father, whom he observes upon a "sad height", begging him to "Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears", and reiterates the refrains once more.

While this poem has inspired a significant amount of unique discussion and analysis from such critics as Seamus Heaney, Jonathan Westphal, and Walford Davies, some interpretations of the poem's meaning are under general consensus. "This is obviously a threshold poem about death", Heaney writes, and Westphal agrees, noting that "[Thomas] is advocating active resistance to death." Heaney thinks that the poem's structure as a villanelle "[turns] upon itself, advancing and retiring to and from a resolution"

"Do not go gentle into that good night" was used as the text for Igor Stravinsky's In Memoriam Dylan Thomas (Dirge Canons and Song) for tenor and chamber ensemble, which was written soon after Thomas's death and first performed in 1954. It is the subject of a 1979 tone poem for wind ensemble by Elliot del Borgo entitled Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night, and was set to orchestral music by John Cale for his 1989 album Words for the Dying. Vincent Persichetti wrote a work for organ pedals alone after the poem called Do Not Go Gentle; it was premiered by Leonard Raver at Alice Tully Hall on Feb 7, 1976. In 1999 Janet Owen Thomas set the poem to music in the 2nd (final) movement of her work Under the Skin. The title of George R. R. Martin's sci fi novel Dying of the Light, published in 1977, is based on one of the two refrains present in "Do not go gentle into that good night". The book deals with topics of the resistance and acceptance of death, on a planetary scale. In the book, the planet is slowly on course out of the region of its neighbouring stars, experiencing both literal and metaphorical "dying of the light". The ninth book in the Skulduggery Pleasant series by Irish Author Derek Landy is titled The dying of the light. The opening passage of the book features an extract from the poem. The poem is read in full by Iggy Pop as the ninth track on his 2019 album Free. A rock version by Billy Green was featured in the soundtrack of the Australian biker film Stone (1974). The poem has been referenced in several films, including Independence Day (1996), where President Thomas J. Whitmore (portrayed by Bill Pullman) vows "we will not go quietly into the night", Back to School (1986), Dangerous Minds (1995) where Michelle Pfeiffer's character LouAnne Johnson uses the poem for a class contest (Dylan Thomas v Bob Dylan contest), and Interstellar (2014) where the poem is used repeatedly by Michael Caine's character Professor John Brand, as well as by several other supporting characters. The poem has also been referenced in other media: "Do not go gentle into that good night" was the inspiration for three paintings by Swansea born painter and printmaker Ceri Richards, who drew them in 1954, 1956, and 1965 respectively. Chinese law professor Xu Zhangrun has used it in his widely recognized 2020 text of government critique. The novel Solenoid (2015), by Romanian writer Mircea Cărtărescu mentions the poem as the most important protest against death.