<P> `` Do not go gentle into that good night '' is a poem in the form of a villanelle , and the most famous work of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas ( 1914 -- 1953 ) . Though first published in the journal Botteghe Oscure in 1951 , it was written in 1947 when he was in Florence with his family . It was published , along with other stories previously written , as part of his In Country Sleep , And Other Poems in 1952 . </P>
who said i will not go quietly into the night
Welsh poet Dylan Thomas