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Thursday, April 12, 2007

They shall have stars at elbow and foot

And Death Shall Have No Dominion
by Dylan Thomas

And death shall have no dominion.
Dead mean naked they shall be one
With the man in the wind and the west moon;
When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone,
They shall have stars at elbow and foot;
Though they go mad they shall be sane,
Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again;
Though lovers be lost love shall not;
And death shall have no dominion.

And death shall have no dominion.
Under the windings of the sea
They lying long shall not die windily;
Twisting on racks when sinews give way,
Strapped to a wheel, yet they shall not break;
Faith in their hands shall snap in two,
And the unicorn evils run them through;
Split all ends up they shan't crack;
And death shall have no dominion.

And death shall have no dominion.
No more may gulls cry at their ears
Or waves break loud on the seashores;
Where blew a flower may a flower no more
Lift its head to the blows of the rain;
Through they be mad and dead as nails,
Heads of the characters hammer through daisies;
Break in the sun till the sun breaks down,
And death shall have no dominion.


4 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

This was the first time I ever read this poem - it gave me goosebumps.

8:43 PM  
Blogger crystal said...

Thanks for your comment. I think I first heard the poem on a tv show :-)

11:30 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I love Dylan Thomas. Just read today his last words were "After 39 years, this is all I've done."

It's really strange when you think about how he wrote about death, and him facing his last moments.

Made me think a lot.

11:44 PM  
Blogger crystal said...

Some of the strangest things are said as people's last words ... I think St. Lawrence, who was tortured to death on a kind of grill, said "Turn me over, this side is done."

2:13 AM  

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