As a follow up to yesterday’s Mom/Trump post, first off a big thank you to those of you who gave me some positive feedback on it. It reminded me of the Mark Twain quote “I can live for two months on a good compliment.” (Note that Mark lived back in slower times, and that two months may now be one too many given today’s hectic environment. Nevertheless, his point is well taken – it is nice to hear nice things said to you.)
The Do Not Go Gentle quote propelled me to dig out my high school text book England in Literature which I have retained all these years. The text includes the poem and then goes on to discuss the 4 classes of men that Thomas cites as wise men, good men, wild men and grave men. The text then poses this question “Why do wise men know that dark is right?” Thomas answers by noting something about “their words had forked no lightening” which when he reads in his Welsh accent (:25 mark in video below) sounds like their words had you-know-what-no lightening.
On the down side, the text also notes that Thomas died when he was here in New York City on his third visit to the United States. He may have raged some but he went out of here at the young age of 39.
In addition to locating my old textbook, I found this good article discussing the background and origins of how Thomas wrote Do Not Go (click here.)
Music-wise, Mr. Zimmerman knew whose name to appropriate.