While I can never claim to equal Dylan Thomas’s powerful poem, I have long felt there should be a Christian counter to it. This, then, is my answer to “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.”

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Do not to raging into that bright day,

for death will collapse and burn at close of night.

See, hear, the ending of dismay.

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For wise men, dying, long gave hope away

that any lasting glory leans on sight.

Do not go raging into that bright day.

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Good men on windswept waters calmly lay,

despite their sins of selfishness and spite,

they see, they hear the ending of dismay.

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Wild dancers, claiming they were gay,

who turned aside, made crooked pathways right,

do not go raging into that bright day.

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Grave men rejoicing dismal drapes of gray

will suddenly give way to holy light

can see and hear the ending of dismay.

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And you, my soul, whose lusts and lies did slay

the Sun of glory—see your holy right:

Do not go raging into that bright day,

but see, and hear the ending of dismay.

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