"And Death Shall Have No Dominion"

I was in a Glastonbury bookstore with Charlie yesterday, trying very hard to find a special gift for someone, when I suddenly came across an old, musty, and crumbling anthology of Dylan Thomas poems.  Thrilled, I opened it to the Table of Contents and, to my great disappointment, found that it didn't contain my favorite of Thomas' poems, "And Death Shall Have No Dominion."  I decided against taking the anthology back across the pond with me, but thought the poem might be of interest to some of you.  I've copied and pasted it below.  -Dax

             AND DEATH SHALL HAVE NO DOMINION

             By Dylan Thomas (1914-1953)

And death shall have no dominion.

Dead men 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;

Though 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.

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