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.

Dylan Thomas

(Picture: Moonlight, Lygia Pape)