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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