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Five elegies

Song Cycle by John McCabe (1939 - 2015)

?. Do not go gentle into that good night  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
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 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.

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 the 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.

Text Authorship:

  • by Dylan Thomas (1914 - 1953), no title

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • GER German (Deutsch) [singable] (Walter A. Aue) , "Geh' Du nicht sanft in jene Gute Nacht", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

First published in Botteghe Oscure (November 1951), revised 1952

Researcher for this page: Jeroen Scholten

?. Eyes that last I saw in tears  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Eyes that last I saw in tears
Through division
Here in death's dream kingdom
The golden vision reappears
I see the eyes but not the tears
This is my affliction

This is my affliction
Eyes I shall not see again
Eyes of decision
Eyes I shall not see unless
At the door of death's other kingdom
Where, as in this,
The eyes outlast a little while
A little while outlast the tears
And hold us in derision.

Text Authorship:

  • by T. S. (Thomas Stearns) Eliot (1888 - 1965), "Eyes that last I saw in tears"

See other settings of this text.

First published in Chapbook, November 1924, as one of "Doris' Dream Songs"

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Total word count: 245
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