And Death Shall Have No Dominion
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.
Commentary
I checked the archives for this poem and was rather surprised not to find it. I find it interesting, not only as one of that subset of poems that defy death, much like Donne’s “Death be not proud” (Poem #796) but also for the interesting form used. It’s not a villanelle or a rondeau. I’ll admit my ignorance and ask that if someone knows the name of this form I’d like to learn it.
As a recent widow I find myself remembering odd bits of poetry dealing with death. While this may sound morbid, I usually find it fairly comforting - especially such lines as “though lovers be lost, love shall not.”
Lollee
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From the Wondering Minstrels mailing list, 1999–2008.
lpaganin · 27 March 2004
Actually, death has all dominion–contrary to Thomas’s opposite claim in this poem. All great art admits the finality (the all-encompassing dominion) of death. I wish that death had no dominion–that it couldn’t destroy all lives (and poets). But it does. Thomas’s poem (however well-written) isn’t insightful; it isn’t true: It denies the finality of death. His poem offers us a typical religiosity: “We’ll all survive–in some form–after we are dead,” he writes. No: Only memories of us will (and memories of us aren’t exactly us.) – Dustin Smith (My favorite poet: Elizabeth Bishop–who never would have written this sort of wishful-thinker’s rant against the inevitable. Read her poems–on this site, under “B”!)
Bob Willison · 28 April 2004
you miss the whole point of this poem. Read Thomas’ other works and you’ll see. Death only becomes Lord, using the Latin derivative, if one doesn’t believe in Jesus as Savior.
Ari y Henry · 9 June 2004
Hi friends,
sometime ago a friend of mine gave me this wonderful poem. I have read it thousend times but english is not my mothertonge so I am not able to understand the full meaning. Could someone of you deliver me a good translation into spanish???. Thank you very much. Arantza
C Horton · 26 June 2004
Just as the chemicals that have to come together and create all from the smallest to the largest, death does not have dominion; they all live on. Even if this rock we call Earth was to be split into millions of bits, those forces that created all in the first place will live. Dominion over life is only a bleak way to look at some sort of end.