When you were a kid, did your Daddy make you recite poems into a tape recorder to practice your diction? No…. then did you ever take a poem and attempt to set it to music? And you really, truly weren’t trying to avoid practicing your assigned piano pieces? OK maybe you were, a little…. 😉
This week’s entry is from the ever colorful and often trivialized Dylan Thomas, a Welshman of lush musicality. It seems apropos for Banned Book Week (9/26-10/3) to rage against endings, closings of doors, windows, opportunities and minds!
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas
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 that 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.
sunset at the angle
“sang the sun” playlist: Power to the People (John Lennon); You Got to Serve Somebody (Marianne Faithfull — love her!); Where are you Going (Dave Matthews Band); I Stand (Idina Menzel — so powerful, and she does not sound like Celine Dion); I Ain’t Marching Anymore (Phil Ochs — love a good protest song, especially one with historical hooks); Into the Great Wide Open (Tom Petty); Political Science (Randy Newman — nobody does poignant cynicism better); Wake Up Everybody (Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes); the Obscenity Prayer (Rodney Crowell – one of the most irony-laden songs ever); Keep Your Mind Wide Open (AnnaSophia Robb — from the soundtrack to Bridge of Terabithia, an oft banned book that everyone should read); Rehumanize Yourself (the Police); Seize the Day (from Newsies, a great “why unions” movie); Rise Up with Fists (Jenny Lewis); Authority Song (John Mellencamp); Yes We Can Can (Harry Connick — written in the wake of Katrina); Fight the Power (the Isley Brothers); You Can’t Always Get What you Want (doesn’t mean you can’t ask 🙂 the Stones); Keep Mediocrity at Bay (Van Morrison — love the lyrics!); Standing Outside the Fire (Garth Brooks); and Just Like That (Kieran Kane — again history & social protest, great combo)
Resolve to take fate by the throat and shake the living out of her. –> Louisa May Alcott
Take care,
Aly
PS — read a Banned Book this week!
History Thru the Looking Glass 
Hi Alyce,
No my dad did not make me talk into a tape recorder! LOL!
I enjoy your blog.. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!