"Do not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" - Krithika

As soon as the alarm rang, I jumped out of my bed and rushed to the bathroom, ransacking my shelves and cupboard to get hold of my toothpaste, toothbrush, and a towel. Being a nocturnal creature, it had always been a big struggle for me to get up early and reach class on time. On top of it, on Fridays we are scheduled to perform physical chemistry laboratory activities, where we are supposed to fall in at 10 in the morning, handled by one of the most sincere faculties in the department who is high on punctuality. So, Fridays I have no other choice than to skip breakfast. As usual, I managed to get into a group of most intellectual fellow beings of the class, expecting that it would alleviate the workload on my head, while we perform experiments. Today, we were asked to perform conductometric titration to determine...............................

Wait! This would have been the lines in my diary if things happened as planned few months back. But alas! Everyone who is reading this at the moment is sure to have a long list of canceled plans just like me. Besides murdering lakhs of people across the globe, the pandemic attempted to kill another lakhs of colorful minds. Many people struggled financially, lost jobs, were isolated from their dear people, businesses crumbled, students' academics affected and to the worst, some were apparently denied education due to the unavailability of internet facilities and the list of tragedies goes on. Everyone is in a way dead inside.

So, being an admirer of poems, I think this would be the right time to recall and imbibe the thoughts of one of the most prominent poets of the early twentieth century, Dylan Thomas,

"Do not go gentle into that Good Night ."

In the poem, the poet expresses a reluctance to accept death meekly. Even if death is at our doorsteps, he asks the readers to rebel against its arrival as strongly as we can, despite its inevitability at a certain stage. Dylan Thomas wrote this to give hope and encouragement to his dying father in bed. But, as critical readers let's understand that we can apply the same to all kinds of adversities of life. Whenever we are met with a misfortune, instead of surrendering to it, try our best to "rage against the dying of the light"; this imperative narration is so motivating. The remarkable imagery of darkness as adversity along with the sarcastic usage of "good" in "good night" makes the poem even precise and meticulous. Even though, at times my mindsets back like the "good men" of his poem, the furious assertions of "rage, rage" make me think like his "wild men". Situationally, this is one of the best mood buster poems I could suggest right now. Here to conclude, I think it would be apt to quote the Roman biographer Cornelius Nepos, "After darkness comes the light."

Keep pushing yourself forward. You are sure to see the light.

Happy reading !

Stay healthy and safe.