Sweetly Slip Into the Quiet Night?

Posted by Victoria S Dennis on October 01, 2007

In Reply to: Sweetly Slip Into the Quiet Night? posted by Lendall Brady on October 01, 2007

: I am looking for a phrase that was used recently in a hospital when my Mother was dying. I can't find the exact words, and I am looking for someone that might know the correct saying. My family and I thought it was, "Sweetly Slip Into the Quiet Night!" Can anyone help me? Thanks so much!

It was almost certainly a version ,more or less garbled, of "go gentle into that good night" , from a poem called "To My Father" by Dylan Thomas. It's ironic that it gets bandied about quite a bit in situations such as your mother's hospital, because "going gently..." is precisely what Thomas in his poem wanted his father *not* to do:

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.

You can read the whole poem here: purplequill.com/ writing2.htm
(VSD)

• Sweetly Slip Into the Quiet Night? Baceseras 03/October/07