And death shall have no dominion | And death shall have no dominion

by Dylan Thomas (1914 - 1953)

And death shall have no dominion

Language: English

And death shall have no dominion.
Dead mean 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;
Through 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.

About the headline (FAQ)

First published in New English Weekly (May 1933), revised 1936

Text Authorship:

by Dylan Thomas (1914 - 1953) [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

by Arthur Edward Drummond Bliss, Sir (1891 - 1975), "And death shall have no dominion", published 1962 [ soprano, tenor, chorus, orchestra, and organ ], from The Beatitudes, text adapted by composer and Christopher Hassall (changes to original not shown) [sung text not yet checked]
by David Andross Farquhar (1928 - 2007), "And death shall have no dominion", 1958 [ baritone and piano ], from In Despite of Death [sung text not yet checked]
by John Michael Hearne (b. 1937), "And death shall have no dominion", 1959 [ soprano, baritone, SATB chorus, and orchestra ], from Symphonic Cantata 3 [sung text not yet checked]
by Udo Kasemets (1919 - 2014), "And death shall have no dominion", 1956 [ alto or baritone and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Robert Manno (b. 1944), "And death shall have no dominion", 2001 [ SATB chorus, harp ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Trevor Roberts (b. 1940), "And death shall have no dominion" [ baritone and orchestra ], from Three Songs for Baritone and Orchestra [sung text not yet checked]
by Richard Roderick-Jones (b. 1947), "And death shall have no dominion", 1966 [ mezzo-soprano, SATB chorus, flute, oboe, bassoon, violin, viola, violoncello, and contrabass ], from Should lanterns shine [sung text not yet checked]
by Leon Stein (b. 1910), "String Quartet no. 5", published 1967 [ soprano and string quartet ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Meirion Williams (1901 - 1976), "And death shall have no dominion" [ baritone and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]

Researcher for this page: Robert Manno

This text was added to the website: 2005-06-08
Line count: 27
Word count: 205