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#Written by David Tam #
#davidkftam@netscape.net Copyright 1999#
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Dylan Marlais Thomas - And Death Shall Have No Dominion
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Dylan Marlais Thomas was born on October 27, 1914, in Swansea,
Glamorganshire, Wales. He married Caitlin Macnamara and had two sons and a
daughter. He was a poet, prose writer, reporter, reviewer, scriptwriter,
radio commentator, and actor. He gave public poetry readings on the BBC radio
and in lecture tours in the United States. Because of a drinking problem, he
died of pneumonia on November 9, 1953, in New York City.
Dylan Thomas is one of the renowned authors of the twentieth century. He
believed writing was a process of self-discovery. This was reflected in his
writings where he explored his own existence and communicated his discoveries
with others. His writing remained distinctly personal, using metaphorical
language, sensuous imagery, and psychological detail. Though it remained
personal, he focused on universal concerns such as birth, death, love, and
religion. His works included: "Eighteen Poems" - 1934, "Portrait of the
Artist as a Young Dog" - 1940, "Fern Hill" - 1946, and "Adventures in the Skin
Trade" - 1955, after his death. His Welsh background attributed to his
attention to sound and rhythm. Up until 1939, he was concerned with
introspective, obsessive, sexual, and religious feelings. He argued
rhetorically with himself about sex, death, sin, redemption, natural
processes, and creation and decay.
Poetic and literary devices that were used included near-rhyme (consonance),
pun, paradox, repetition, alliteration, inversion, metaphors, and contrast.
The poet used "foot" and "not" at the end of lines 5 and 8 as a near-rhyme. It
is one of the more prominent devices because it is used throughout the poem.
A pun was used on the word "windily" in line 12 to mean both the movement of
the sea and the shroud in which the dead are buried at sea. A paradox could
be found in line 16 where the poet wrote "unicorn evils them through;". The
unicorn is a symbol of Christ and has no association with evils. The most
obvious repetition was that of the line, "And death shall have no dominion"
because it was present at the beginning and ending of each stanza. The
repetition of the word "though" was present in the first stanza. This was the
most prominent device that the poet used. It effectively re-enforced the
ideas of the poem and provided a secure poetic structure. Alliteration could
be found in a few places, such as line 8, "Though lovers be lost love shall
not." Inversion was present in line 4, "...bones are picked clean and the
clean bones gone." A metaphor was used in line 15 to compare faith with a
wooden stick, "Faith in their hands shall snap in two." Contrast was evident
in lines 6 to 8, "Though they go mad, they shall be sane," and could also be
classified as a paradox.
Images of the sea, torture, and biblical events were formed from the reading
of this poem. Sea imagery was created in the first stanza by the the idea
that the dead sank into the sea and rose again. In the second stanza,
"windings of the sea" was mentioned. The third stanza the sound of gulls and
the seashore maintained this imagery. Images of suffering were found in the
second stanza in lines 13 and 14. "Twisting on racks when sinews give way,
strapped to a wheel, yet they shall not break." These lines brought out the
image of the body and muscles in pain and of the midevil Catherine Wheel.
Biblical imagery was created by the description of the rise of dead bodies
from the sea (Revelation 20:13), and the use of the paradox of "unicorn evils".
The idea of this poem was that although people die, they will eventually be
redeemed at the end of time. It supported the prophesies of the bible, the
Book of Revelations. We should not let the fear of death control our lives.
We have nothing to fear because at the end, God will redeem those who were
good. Each stanza of the poem developed support for expansion of the theme.
The first stanza focused on mankind, the second focused more on God and
suffering, and the third focused on nature. The poet was making a bold
statement about life and the prophesies.
The repetition of "And death shall have no dominion" re-enforced the theme
of this poem. The message was delivered very strongly and even used as the
title. By repeating this line at the beginning and end of each stanza, a
nicely structured poem developed. The use of near-rhyme made the poem
enjoyable to read.
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