And Death Shall Have No Dominion is a poem written by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas (1914-1953). On September 10, 1936, two years after the release of his first volume of poetry, Twenty-five Poems was published. Twenty-five Poems revealed Thomas’ personal philosophies pertaining religion and the forces of nature. Included in this introspective volume of work is And Death Shall Have No Dominion. The poem has also been recorded as being published in the New English Weekly in March of 1933. It has gained vast recognition, being incorporated in current schooling and feature films (Solaris, The Weight of Water).

And Death Shall Have No Dominion

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.