Rage against the dying of the light

As I was reading "The Death of the Moth", by Virginia Woolf this week, I was constantly reminded of this poem:

"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.

...

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."

~Dylan Thomas

                     The life, and subsequent death, of the moth reflects the lives of humans, living ephemerally, like the flash of a burning sun. The same light that grants youthful passion also removes it so abruptly.  In the poem, Thomas explores the reactions of three kinds of people:  wise men, good men, wild men, grave men, and finally his own father, to the prospect of death.  The moth described in Woolf's work, similarly, struggles with its own transience. It "slips on the wooden ledge and falls"(Woolf 697), and "his legs fluttered again....in last protest" (Woolf 697).  

                   Each action of the moth, in this piece, mirrors a similarly human action.  In the rapid fluttering of the moth at the beginning, I saw a youth devouring the world which bombarded his senses.  In the middle, I saw a middle aged adult, "dancing and zigzagging" (696) with his significant other.  At the end, I saw an old man, "stiff or awkward"(697).  But Dylan Thomas views this aging process differently.  

                 In his poem "Do not go Gentle into that Good Night", Thomas urges his father to "rage, rage, against the dying of the light"; instead of slipping and falling like a dying moth, the poem seems to suggest being energetic, and being a "bead of life"(Woolf 696) until the very end.  And if you've lived a fulfilling and adventurous life, I suppose, that's the very best way to go.  

~Chris