The next poem I will look at is ‘And death shall have no dominion’. I feel that this is a powerful and moving poem which argues that, although death is a part of the human condition (inevitable), it is in fact totally powerless to destroy the life force which combines all living things. Although the poem stems from Biblical statements it refers to general continuity of life beyond death, not the resurrection of the individual that is central to the Christian faith.
The poem consists of three stanzas, all of which are syllabically identical (have the same number of syllables in corresponding lines).
Stanza one describes the reuniting of the human soul with the elemental life forces after death. In the third line language inversion is used in the phrase ‘man in the wind and the west moon’ it would make a lot more sense to say ‘man in the moon and the west wind’ but perhaps DT has purposely changed the order of the lexis in order to highlight the mysterious and inconceivable state of existence into which the human soul is absorbed and the disorientation of the soul as it enters that state. The stanza also suggests that a more glorious body will replace the physical one and asserts the enduring character of both the human soul and human love.
The second stanza suggests that whatever form of death an individual has faced, such as drowning or being martyred for a cause, death is still powerless. Line 12 says ‘they shall not die windily’ which means they will not die in vain or in a state of fright. Line 15 ‘faith in their hands shall snap in two’ is a reference to the destruction of faith which could suggest that even though ideologies can be defeated, life itself will still endure.
I think stanza three tells us that existence may continue, ‘heads of the characters hammer through daisies’, even though death has put an end to an individuals ability to perceive the natural world. I also think that the first few lines in the stanza say that death is peaceful, when they die they will no longer be troubled by the worries of the world, i.e. death is an end to an individuals suffering. The final four lines make a powerful statement about the continuity of life and the life force saying that life will continue ‘till the sun breaks down’ (until the end of all time) and emphasising that death has no dominion.
Throughout the poem the phrase ‘And death shall have no dominion’ is repeated six times. It makes up the first and last line of every stanza. I think this has been done to place further emphasis on the belief that death has no power/control over the life force only over physical beings. There is some alliteration and repetition in the first stanza of the word ‘love’ and the ‘l’ sound, this helps to provide cohesion within the poem.
The last poem that I will look at in which DT explores his metaphysical viewpoint is ‘Why east wind chills’. I think that this poem represents DT’s attempts to reconcile himself to the fact that he, or anyone else, will never obtain answers to the questions about human existence and the nature of the universe.
The first stanza explores all the questions we have about the meanings of life and the universe e.g. ‘Why east wind chills and south wind cools’ will not be know until the ‘windwell dries’. In mythology the windwell is the source of all winds, which shows that as the wind will never stop, we will never know the answers to these questions. In the line ‘the child shall question all his days’ the child is representative of all human kind, as are the children throughout the rest of the poem. ‘All his days’ means that we will be questioning for the rest of our lives, but will never find an answer. Perhaps this says that we have as much knowledge about life as a child does or that humans are childish to even ask such questions when they know that they will never find an answer. The last phrase in stanza one ‘black reply’ means that the reply to these questions will be dark, we will be left the in dark about these questions. The second stanza explores the same questions about life and death. The first line contains archaic lexis ‘cometh’ perhaps suggesting that we have been asking these questions for hundreds of years yet still have no answers. Jack Frost is a personification of winter and also represents death. The ‘comet’ that the children attempt to grasp in their fists represents the metaphysical answer to the questions. The last four lines of the stanza tell us that we will never know the answers until we die and that death shall reveal all – ‘white answer’.
Stanza three mocks the naïve faith of believers in explanatory systems ‘stars advice’ (astrology). Even the stars in which humans search for answers are themselves ignorant of the truth.
The last stanza (four) states that the speaker is reconciled to not knowing the answers to his questions. Because there is nothing else he can do, he must be content that there are no answers and we should stop asking these questions. When we do ask the questions are thrown back at us – ‘echoes answer’ and we are just left facing death. The ‘handbell’ and ‘corridors’ remind me of a school-like environment where questions are asked etc and the ignorant children do not know the answers or the foolishness of their questioning. ‘Man of frost’ is mentioned again, referring to death. The ‘raised fist’ represents the defiant persistence of our questioning.
Overall I think that these three poems give a representation of DT’s thoughts on mans place in the universe, the unity of the human life force with the universal life force and man as one with the natural elements. He does this by using a variety of metaphors and descriptive language in an ambiguous way, which means you have to read the poems more than once to get a grip on what he is saying about his subject.
The next lot of poems I am going to look at now are poems in which DT explores his position as poet in relation to the rest of society. I will be looking at and analysing relevant parts of the following poems; ‘I have longed to move away’, ‘Ears in the turrets hear’ and ‘This bread I break’.
The first poem ‘I have longed to move away’ seems, to me, to be about DT’s longing to escape from various social and religious conventions which he considers hypocritical and false. The first stanza presents these conventions as being in their death-throes, yet they are still trying to assert themselves ‘old terrors continual cry’. As the poem moves on to mention ‘repetition’, it repeats the phrase ‘I have longed’ this cleverly reflects the meaning through poetic form. The ‘ghost/ghostly’ of lines 8-9 continues this, as does ‘and/and’.
In stanza two, alongside his yearning, DT expresses his fear – not of the unknown but rather of some power that the almost dead conventions might still have to rise up and harm him. The conventions he describes are ‘salutes’, ‘the parting of hat from hair’ and ‘pursed lips at the receiver’. The salutes and parting of hat from hair give an almost military style to the poem, the salutes being the standard greeting in the forces and the parting of hat from hair a war-like image of death.
I think DT is trying to say that the conventions are too rigid and militaristic, that he feels oppressed by these social conventions and although they are still used, but feels they should not be as they have lost their meaning through repetitive, meaningless usage. The pursed lips at the receiver reflect the way in which these lies are told and kept alive. Lines 15-20 seem to convey, especially through the irony of the final two lines, affixed determination to forge new ways of living which are more genuine.
Various phonological features are used in the poem. In line 8-9 alliteration is used with the ‘gh’ sound in the words ‘ghost’ and ‘ghostly’. This provides internal cohesion in the poem. There is also the use of rhyme at the end of line 2 & 3 – ‘lie’ and ‘cry’ and in the second stanza – ‘die’ and ‘lie’. This rhyme is used to accentuate these words so the reader notices the main themes throughout the poem.
The next poem I will look at is ‘Ears in the turrets hear’, I think this poem is about the indecision and fears of the speaker about whether or not he dares to engage with other people and ways of living other than his own (which could be dangerous) or to remain in isolation (which he knows is safe). This works well as the original title of the poem was going to be ‘Dare I’.
In the first stanza DT visualises himself as a building/castle and island both of which are assaulted by the outside world. He hears hands ‘grumble’ on the door of the turret, the hands are the outside world and he is the turret. There is repetition through all the stanzas of ‘shall I (action) . . . or stay till the day I die’ showing that throughout the poem the speaker in indecisive about which path to take and possibly DT is trying to reflect that throughout life we will have to make difficult choices just as the speaker is throughout the poem. The poem also repeats ‘hold you poison or grapes?’ this show the speaker inquisitiveness towards the offer of another life and whether or not it will hold danger (poison) or good fortune (grapes).
In the second stanza DT describes the landscape of the island and the fact that he is the island ‘thin sea of flesh and a bone coast’. The landscape he is describing is where he (DT) grew up, his view from his bedroom. He is saying that it is peaceful and nothing ‘disturbs this island’s rest’ and he sounds quite content with the way things are. However, in the next stanza he makes joining in with others sound exciting when he says ‘run to the ships, with the wind in my hair’ as if he wants to go but still isn’t daring enough.
In the 4th stanza the grumbling hands from the first stanza appear again as do the ships from the third in addition to rain. I think DT is trying to come to a decision, taking into mind all of the previous attempts of contact, about whether or not to venture out and take a chance.
In the last stanza DT asks ‘hands of the stranger and holds of the ships, hold you poison or grapes?’ this is the speaker final attempt to decide whether or not to take a chance and try something new, leave his island of isolation. The lexis ‘hands’ and ‘holds’ weirdly remind me of marriage vows ‘to have and to hold’ possibly something to do with a dangerous risk.
The last poem I will look at is ‘This bread I break’. The main theme of this poem seems to be transubstantiation – the idea that everything was once something else etc. The implied speaker of the poet is Christ; this becomes more obvious in the last stanza where he refers to his violent death.
The first two lines of the first stanza ‘this bread I break was once the oat, the wine upon a foreign tree’ refer to the bread and wine at the last supper of Christ and comment on the irony of bringing about the death of nature in order to celebrate the life of Christ. The repetition of ‘break’ throughout the poem adds to this violent imagery. This shows that things have to be hurt and broken before they are transformed. This idea provides the poems central metaphor and says that Christ too had to suffer and die before being resurrected.
The second stanza provides further illustrations of mankind’s destruction of living things and his assertion of power over nature in order to create bead and wine for Holy Communion. This is show in line 10 ‘Man broke the sun, pulled the wind down’ the word ‘sun’ could also be a pun for son – Jesus.
In the last stanza the reader is addressed directly ‘you’, bringing them into the poem and allowing them to see what damage man is causing. He reminds them that he too is a part of nature, which seems to suggest that his destruction is an inevitable part of his purpose on earth.
Overall I feel that these poems give a representation of DT’s position as a poet in relation to the rest of society. I feel that he is trying to say that, as a poet, he is isolated from the rest of civilisation and that it is his job to help readers see the falseness of society and persuade them to not change it, but realise the illusion and appreciate the wonders of nature and all natural things.
