November 2nd, 2007
The Death Flight
There is something appealing about fighting to the death. It may be desperate and hopeless, but at least it is defiant, a surge of life before the very end.
Transcriptorial: None of them just die. They rise / higher than ever before. / Exhausted, they collapse and fall.
“We will not go quietly into the night. We will not perish without a fight. We are going to live on; we are going to survive.”
Don’t even try to tell me that speech didn’t give you goose bumps.
You forgot the “Rage! Rage against the dying of the light!” part. The poem was originally written about the act of dying, and how it is noble to fight to the last to achieve even a moment’s consciousness. It was written to a dying father by a grieving son.
Now you know why my Viking ancestors refused to die without a weapon in hand…
That last burst of life is the proof that you ever really lived in the first place. It’s the people who have really experienced life who fight until the very end; they know exactly what it is they’re giving up.