“And death shall have no dominion”

By: Dylan Thomas

Pantheistic

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 and 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 gave 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.

Pantheism is a form of transcendentalism and means oneness with nature. Nature here transfers the human existence to higher levels beyond its earthly limitations. This transformation or break from the confines of earthly boundaries happens via the agency of death itself but in the hereafter. Eternity is the sitting for this predicted liberation. We know this because the refrain “And death shall have no dominion” comes from the new testament and it refers to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.so we can say that one important thing that distinguishes Dylan Thomas’s pantheistic attitude from the romantic or wordsworthian one, is its reliance on the Christian belief. “Wheel” is a foreshadow which demonstrates every side and everything is God and pantheism is about everlasting energies like love which is not lost or spirit (first stanza ).in second stanza, loss of faith and torture are not determinant elements to destroy spirit (everlasting energy).in this poem pantheism is illustrated in a perfect gradual cycle. The center point of the poem, firstly by mention some foreshadow and by bringing some layers of spirit like the concepts of love. Secondly by probing that spirit will not be destroyed and finally by showing that the poet saw spirit in every objects like daisies and sun.