The greatest poets have the ability to rouse the soul with the written word alone, so it’s all the more striking when we have the chance to hear one of the greats read some of their best known work aloud.
Dylan Thomas died at the tender age of thirty-nine after falling into an alcohol-induced coma. He’d agreed to do a series of radio broadcasts for the BBC to lift he, his wife, and daughter out of poverty following WWII, though his family life was far from idyllic, as Maria Popova at Brain Pickings describes in greater detail.
“Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” was written at the height of his radio career in 1947, though it was only published two years before his death. His reading of it skates the fine line between impassioned reading and song.
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