Poem Explication: and Death Shall Have No Dominion Essay Example

wind that all worthy souls are fused with is a reference to the Holy Spirit as described in the book of John, “You hear [the wind’s] sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit” (John 3:8). The “west moon” could be a reference to the saying “east of the sun and west of the moon,” which indicates a day or a full cycle, in this case a human returning to the dirt from whence he came and becoming one with God. Thomas then describes life after death, “[The dead] shall have stars at elbow and foot; / [t]hough they go mad they shall e sane, / [t]hough they sink though the sea they shall rise again, / [t]hough lovers be lost love shall not... ” The repetitive sentence structure emphasizes the speaker’s awe and gratitude, with each line pounding in the same point in different and significant ways. The 5th line is straightforward; the dead will be one with the stars and the sky, the immortal realm. The book of Exodus reads “[t]hou canst not see my face; for there shall no man see me, and live,” an example of a running theme in the Bible that to truly know God is to know madness (Exodus 33:20).

This idea is reflected in line 6, as the risen are gifted with the inherent sanity of omniscience and the madness induced by knowing God. The 7th introduces the conceit of the sea in the poem, which the holy rise out of and above. Finally, line 8 states that love, like life, transcends the

weak clutches of death and persists throughout all time. This paradoxical quatrain communicates the inconceivable and incredible nature of post death in an almost reverent manner, causing the audience to stretch their imaginations and dwell on the complex topic.

This section also marks a subtheme of the poem in the celebration of the divine purpose in all human and natural processes (Dylan Thomas Biography). The first stanza concludes with, “And death shall have no dominion,” in a strong, defiant truth in which the speaker proudly announces the power of the soul. Like the other two, it starts and concludes with that same line, giving it authority continually bringing out its full meaning. The rhyming pattern is largely irregular throughout the poem, though often couplets or triplets are linked by false rhyme to point out that those lines go together to form one thought.

The second stanza begins like the first, but leads to a wholly different perspective: that eternal life can just as easily be unimaginable torture. Thomas begins the stanza by bringing back up the ocean metaphor, saying that “[u]nder the windings of the sea / [t]hey lying long shall not die windily... ” Here the speaker warns that the unrepentant sinners, the untruthful “lying long,”  will persist as unfulfilled as they have lived. They will exist in agony, “[t]wisting on racks when sinews give way, / [s]trapped to a wheel, yet they shall not break,” and suffer endless torture. Breaking” or “giving way” would be the only desire for those that are evil, to stop the pain and be allowed to rest in peace, but the strength of life dominates death and they are forced

to live on. Typical of modernist poets at the time, Dylan Thomas rejects the use of softened or genteel diction and writes harshly and brusquely to suit an era of global violence (Loy). Before cherishing the blessing of death’s insignificance, the speaker now adopts a somber tone and depicts the horrors below the sea, lamenting the fate of many who can never find rest.

The duality towards perpetuity expressed by the poem thus far reflects the orthodox Christian poetry at the time, characterized by feeling rather than thought (Hayden). The latter half of the stanza further elaborates on the punishments of the denizens of Hell, that “[f]aith in their hands shall snap in two, / [a]nd the unicorn evils run them through... ” The word “snap” indicates the first use of sound imagery and highlights the permanence of the death sentence. In many cases when something is broken it can’t be fixed, and the definitive breaking of the cursed’s faith finalizes their fate.

Choosing the adjective “unicorn” to describe the evils could mean that they are pure and unadulterated, that they are there is not a single ray of light in the blackness of its depths. The unicorn also appears on the royal crest of England and in Japanese folklore the unicorn was a beast of morality and judgement, so the usage of “unicorn” could be emphasizing that the occupants of Hell have been proven guilty by a higher power. This idea of genuine evil would fit the trends of modernistic poets in instilling a more pessimistic and bleak outlook on life, and in this case, death (Introduction to Modernist Poetry).

Thomas began with appreciation and stepped down

to lugubriosity, yet in the third stanza he leaves the poem with a sense of wonder. He writes that, when the dead pass, “[n]o more may gulls cry at their ears / [o]r waves break loud on the seashores... ” Again utilizing sound imagery, Thomas elucidates that among all other things, a partition imposes itself on those who have left the mortal world. The sounds of Earth are gone after passing because neutrality and staying within the sea is impossible, everyone is cast into one of two opposite extremes, an ultimatum that serves as a warning for those of good intentions and bad inclinations.

The sea also serves as Thomas’s motivation for the poem, inspired by the natural beauty while growing up in Wales (). As the poem draws to a conclusion Thomas writes, “[t]hough they be mad and dead as nails, / [h]eads of the characters hammer through daisies; / [b]reak in the son till the son breaks down... ” Daisies are a symbol of purity and rejuvenation, a physical embodiment of the theme of the poem. Those who are “mad,” men fused with the Trinity, are arisen metaphorically as flowers, who will continue to “break” or blossom until the sun itself goes out.

The process of rebirth and death is neverending, the untainted beacons have been here since the beginning of time and will circulate until the end of time. Like many other of Thomas’s poems, this goes in a complete cycle both in structure, with the repetition of the title and the identical word choice,  and in theme. Closing with, “[a]nd death shall have no dominion,”  Dylan Thomas drives home the final meaning of

the phrase: death’s only meaning is to drive the circle of life, and is thus powerless.

In “And Death Shall Have No Dominion,” Dylan Thomas utilizes a plethora of devices to convey a series of contrasting tones and evince the theme that death has no capacity to prevent life’s amaranthine processes. Word Count: 1416 Literary Criticism #1: And Death Has No Dominion Dylan Thomas grew up in a ravaged Great Britain, born in 1914 and just old enough to understand the cataclysmic effects World War I had on the country. Britain and Germany had the extreme drops in GDP and hyperinflation in the most impressionable periods of Thomas’s life, and as a result the death rates went up significantly from crime and suicide.

Though going through the 1921 depression relatively unscathed in a middle class family, Dylan Thomas learned that family values and sticking together were integral in maintaining financial and social stability. Given his childhood, interpreting the poem “And Death Has No Dominion” from a biographical criticism approach would yield more bleak results than from a new criticism approach. Thomas was always fascinated with the relationship between life and death. His father an English teacher and budding poet, Dylan Thomas adopted the harshness and bluntness of the period he grew up in and the ability to see bstract connections from his father (Dylan Thomas Biography). Surrounded by death and poverty, the title phrase “and death shall have no dominion” comes off as a bitter resolution by the speaker to remind himself and his audience that all the lives he’s seen come to and end are not in vain.

Analyzing the phrase in a new critical way changes

the tone entirely, the absolute coming off as confidence, as if the speaker had conquered death, not justified it. Similar to this is the idea that the dead “shall have stars at elbow and foot, / [t]hough they go mad they shall be sane, / [t]hough they sink through the sea they shall rise again.. The repetitive sentence structure and thought provoking paradoxes suggest that the speaker is glorifying the afterlife. However, if you consider the traumatizing incidents Dylan Thomas underwent growing up, it comes across more as the speaker’s wishful thinking, the confidence level goes down inversely with the knowledge that no decent human would be able to accept such heartbreaking losses and not rationalize some form of inner peace. The brutality expressed in the second paragraph is similar in both critiques, as the language captures the feelings the speaker is projected to have.

When so stricken by hardships it is natural to wish the worst on the aggressors, to imagine that “[u]nder the windings of the sea / [t]hey lying long shall not die windily... ” The metaphor comparing the bottom of the ocean, the endless black depths, to hell depicts a vivid and horrifying picture of the torment of tormentors. Their suffering seems like deserved recompense when viewed in biographical criticism, as Thomas was constantly surrounded by historical debt and entropy (Hayden). The anger expressed here diminishes over time, as can be seen in the third stanza.

As Thomas begins to see Britain repair itself, as the poem was published 14 years after the war in 1933, he can understand the reasoning behind the suffering. Just as happiness slowly returns to his country so

do the “[h]eads of characters hammer through daisies,” and from both perspectives the speaker can rationalize the deaths, knowing that however horrible they may have been , the deaths and new life are unstoppable processes that define nature. Word Count: 530 Literary Criticism #2: And Death Has No Dominion Growing up as a strong Christian, Dylan Thomas was taught to see truth in the verses and parables of the Bible.

One of the most difficult struggles any person will have to face is the abrupt cessation induced by death. In the poem “And Death Shall Have No Dominion,” many of Thomas’s arguments can be viewed from a strongly theological perspective. When considered with mythological criticism, the poem can be viewed as a journey to eternal holiness and a warning of the tortures of Hell. Many of the phrases contain Biblical references that can change its meaning when observed with mythological versus new criticism. The title, “And Death Shall Have No Dominion,” has a considerably different connotation from a religious standpoint.

The death and revival of the human soul is much more than simply providing nutrients to the nearest decomposer; it becomes a magnificent journey to omniscience and omnipresence that people model their entire lives over. The speaker in this case refers to Heaven and Hell, the gift and curse that Jesus bestowed on us after his own resurrection. When referring to the daisies, “break[ing] in the sun until the sun breaks down,” a strictly new critical standpoint would intimate that the human body, in death, returns its essence back into the ground and becomes fuel for the flowers, thus completing the particle exchange.

The juxtaposition of the words

provides a powerful indicator of the scope of the cycle of life, that as much as the world changes, the matter on Earth is exactly the same now as it was on its inception, and will continue to be the same until the end of time. But when viewed from a mythological criticism perspective, the daisies become an angelic symbol of purity. After the speaker finishes explaining that Heaven and Hell are permanent settlements, he remarks with the daisies that some of the grace of Heaven is put back on earth, thus completing a spiritual cycle as well as a chemical one.

This seal of Heaven also indicates that it is the dominant entity, to be present and making an influence on Earth, and the speaker, along with Dylan Thomas,  is immensely thankful for that. Finally, in his hope for eternal life, the speaker , when viewed from mythological criticism standpoint, is trying to limit the power of death (Meyer 2096).

Biography.

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"A Brief Guide to Modernism. " Poets. rg - Poetry, Poems, Bios & More. N. p. , n. d. Web. 25 Jan. 2012. <http://www. poets. org/viewmedia. php/prmMID/5664>. Meyer, Michael. The Bedford introduction to literature: reading, thinking, writing. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2009. Print. Rogers, Pete. "Dylan

Marlais Thomas - famous Swansea son. " Welcome to Swansea - Wales' Golden Coastal City. N. p. , n. d. Web. 25 Jan. 2012. ;http://http://www. welshwales. co. uk/dylan. htm;. Wilson, James. "Dylan Thomas Works Analysis. " Dylan Thomas Literary Analysis. N. p. , n. d. Web. 25 Jan. 2012.