Yep, I ripped off the poetry of Dylan Thomas to rage against the dying of the light. In other words, to rage against autumn. It stinks.
Labor Day, as we all know, is the death knell for summer. Can someone please explain why that’s an occasion to celebrate? What is wrong with people? We shouldn’t be celebrating, we should be mourning the loss of a dearly beloved and all too short season. Besides, summer isn’t dead yet, so let’s stop shoving it toward the graveyard. There’s still plenty of life in these waning days of sunshine.
What’s so great about autumn, anyway? Is it the leaves? Granted, they turn gorgeous, eye-popping colors for, what?, a week? Then they fall off the trees and we spend hours raking them into tall, brittle piles of 
brown and stuffing them into bags. Those bags eventually get dragged to the curb and uglify the landscape for days. The blisters caused by all that raking will last significantly longer.
Well, here’s a heads-up: the falling leaves aren’t confetti, they’re summer’s teardrops. They’re also ghastly precursors of the much dreaded snowflake, nature’s scourge, welcoming us to winter’s anteroom. Bonfires and hot chocolate are small compensation for the damp, blustery, gloomy conditions we’ll soon be forced to endure.
Static electricity, that shocking little phenomenon, will make a roaring comeback, as will hat hair and chapped lips and a pasty, sickly pallor. The list of downsides is very, very, very, very long: snowdrifts, windshield scraping, treacherous footing, icicles, a barren, joyless landscape … Is that what you’re pining for? Really?
Well, snap out of it. Call off the deathwatch and let’s live the daylights out of every last minute of summer. Cowabunga!
copyright © 2017 the whirly girl
the whirly girl 
28 responses to “: do not go gentle :”
Personally this is one of my favorite pieces of poetry because of how many possible meanings it could have but this is probably one of my favorite ways that someone has interpreted it.
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What a relief :o) I felt guilty hijacking such a legendary poem for my little piece. You’ve offered a measure of redemption. Thank you ☺️
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I love autumn and winter. Suppose I am a little weird though. I kinda like the whole cycle of life, death and rebirth that the seasons bring.
Hope I am still allowed to read your blog…
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Of course you are! Autumn I can live with, it’s winter I’d like to ban. It wants to kill me 🌬
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Phew! Maybe we could find a way of giving you some of my summers (not that I get much of one living in the UK) and you can give me some of your winters?
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Woohoo!!!! You’ve got yourself a deal and a new best friend for life if you can pull that off. Well, even if you can’t :o)
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I’m on it! *it may take some time*Anything for a friend :-)
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Oh, bless you 🌞
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I never understood this, especially now living in California, where I thought summer was supposed to be “year round” or that there were only two seasons…summer and fall really. I feel like you are supposed to close up shop on your beach towels and it’s. CALIFORNIA! Just because kids are going back to school doesn’t mean adults have to go hide inside during the week and not be seen in a bathing suit. smh.
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Exactly! Stand firm and refuse to budge from your spot in the sun — unless it’s starts raining or freezing. Then you can go inside, but only until the sun comes back out :o)
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Enjoyed the post and the responses, but may I, respectfully, disagree? The best days of the year are those (admittedly few) sunny, warm autumn days when the leaves are gorgeous colours. Nothing lifts the spirits quite like that. After that, though, I’m with you all the way.
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Okay, I’ll give you that one. Those days are pretty incredible, but does winter have to rush in and ruin everything for months on end? It’s abject misery.
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You wouldn’t say so if you were living here in New Delhi where summer lasts for eight months – not a hot summer, but a humid one.
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I love everything about summer. I do. Even the humidity. Although it’s not my favorite part, I’ll take humidity over winter all day long :o)
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Yes goodbye to your summer and bring it on down here. I actually begged another blogger to describe his summer days whilst in the middle of our muddy, sludgy winter but sadly it wasn’t enough . So rack off winter. I don’t know why you insist on turning up you’re really not that very nice!
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Oh, please, can I keep it? I’ll take good care of it, I promise. Please, puh-leeze, pretty please? I’ll be good. I’ll make my bed and do my homework and eat my vegetables. Please? Winter is trying to kill me dead and this could be the year it succeeds 😵
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Nope, no way. Suck it up Princess it’s mine now. Oh happy days are here again……well they will be soon ;)
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Fine. There’s a yuge, constant blast of hot air out of DC, you know. So maybe stoopid winter will steer clear all on its own. I know I would 🏃🏽♀️
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One can only hope and pray :)
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:o\
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Exactly!! Glad there is some one else on this train. It seems EVERY ONE around me is already decorating for Autumn and welcoming it.
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I know! Isn’t it awful? Who looks forward to long pants and itchy sweaters? Give me summer or give me an airline ticket to the equator 🌞
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I agree. Wholeheartedly. Though being British we have a less literal and more poetic name for it: autumn.
The start of autumn essentially signifies the slow dying off of all that we hold dear – y’know, leaves and things. So, in that sense, it’s probably the season most well-matched to these anxious, slow-death-y times in which we live.
Or something.
I miss summer.
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Oh, me, too! I’m counting the minutes until it comes back around 🌻
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Amen.
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🍻
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Would you believe I just quoted this poem to a friend today? I’m being totally serious. What are the chances?!
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I seriously believe this stuff exists in the airwaves. It just floats around and pops into heads almost at will. Ideas trend in the atmosphere just like they do on twitter. Yeah, I know, I’m delusional … 🔭
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