And Death Shall Have No Dominion Analysis

Symbols, Imagery, Wordplay

Form and Meter

We know Dylan Thomas was very much inspired by Romantic poetry. "And death shall have no dominion" is no exception to that trend. It's perhaps a near perfect example of just how much he loved Willi...

Speaker

When you're talking about death and the afterlife, chances are you'd do so with a rather omniscient voice (that all-seeing perspective). It's kind of unavoidable since none of us has ever been ther...

Setting

We're all over the map in "And death shall have no dominion," but at the same time we don't get any specifics as to where exactly we are. Instead, the speaker keeps things pretty ambiguous but clea...

Sound Check

We know it sounds Romantic, and we know it sounds biblical now and then. But at the same time, "And death shall have no dominion" also sounds pretty modern with those slant rhymes that refuse to be...

What's Up With the Title?

When your title matches your refrain, you know it's got to be important. We know that "And death shall have no dominion" comes straight from the New Testament and that it's all about spiritually ri...

Calling Card

If you come across another Dylan Thomas poem, chances are you'll see some cosmic stuff similar to "And death shall have no dominion." He's not exactly known for being a "down to earth" kind of guy....

Tough-o-Meter

Don't expect every Dylan Thomas poem to get such a relatively easy rating. The guy's known for being pretty difficult to decode later on in his career. But in this first official jaunt in poetry, T...

Trivia

Dylan Thomas was kind of the first rock star/hipster, at least, in the poet world. And we've got the proof.Wales considers Thomas their best-known writer. We'd tend to agree… even though we're a...

Steaminess Rating

Although Dylan Thomas is known for having one or two racy poems, this isn't one of them. The closest thing we get to sex is in line 8 when the speaker talks about love never being lost after death....

Allusions

"And death shall have no dominion" (Title, refrain) refers to St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans (6:9).