I have decided (in the absence of interesting words from within myself) to post other people's interesting words. Here's my first offering; a poem I rediscovered and love, by Dylan Thomas:
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;
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.
Love the promises - or suggestions - in this. "Though they go mad they shall be sane" and "Though lovers be lost love shall not." Great words.
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3 comments:
Wonderful stuff...and for me goes
with John Donne's "Death be not proud"...Inspiration on a Saturday morning. Thank you :-)
Oh, thank YOU Kathryn - a new one to me. Though I found it much more cut and dried than Thomas - where "Death shall have no Dominion" still has some uncertainties and hits at doubts, the Donne poem is much more certain...
The thing about death is that whatever people's views or beliefs it is still unknown to the living.
It can hold promise of greater things. It can be the grand finale. It can be a merciful release.
I think Jung wrote something about man being only complete when he is dead. I pondered that one long and hard and kind of got it and then lost it as soon as.
I would like to think that my Mum and Tommy and anyone who suffered/suffers too much in this life get to have something better when the body goes back to the land but I fear that the best they get is an ending of pain. Which, I guess, is better than a continuing of it.
I hate all the stuff programmed into our psyches (religeous doctrine) about purgatory and hell. Isn't life hell enough for some?
OOOh...I need to find something uplifting. A poem about chocolate. An ode to chocolate even.
:>)
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