And Death Shall Have no Dominion - 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;   

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.

 

The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas, 1957.