A Refusal To Mourn The Death, By Fire, Of A Child In London - A poem by Dylan Thomas

Dylan Thomas - A Refusal To Mourn The Death, By Fire, Of A Child In London

Never until the mankind making
Bird beast and flower
Fathering and all humbling darkness
Tells with silence the last light breaking
And the still hour
Is come of the sea tumbling in harness

And I must enter again the round
Zion of the water bead
And the synagogue of the ear of corn
Shall I let pray the shadow of a sound
Or sow my salt seed
In the least valley of sackcloth to mourn

The majesty and burning of the child's death.
I shall not murder
The mankind of her going with a grave truth
Nor blaspheme down the stations of the breath
With any further
Elegy of innocence and youth.

Deep with the first dead lies London's daughter,
Robed in the long friends,
The grains beyond age, the dark veins of her mother,
Secret by the unmourning water
Of the riding Thames.
After the first death, there is no other.

Added: on March 17th, 2006 at 6:35 PM | Viewed: 11742 times | Comments (8)

A Refusal To Mourn The Death, By Fire, Of A Child In London - Comments and Information
Poet: Dylan Thomas Poem: A Refusal To Mourn The Death, By Fire, Of A Child In London Comment 8 of 8, added on August 4th, 2006 at 12:26 PM. This poem has haunted me for many years. On reading the last line, it seemed entirely clear what Dylan Thomas was saying - that there is a depth of grief that one can go to only once. Upon coming to grips with the horror of it, one can no longer be so craven as to assume the ability to truly grasp the totality of death or to even presume the ability to go there again and again without losing one's self in it. The third stanza states: I shall not murder The mankind of her going with a grave truth Nor blapheme down the stations of the breath With any further Elegy of innocence and youth That is, to truly and fully feel the horror of that particular death, after so many others - whether personal or representative of humanity's destructiveness - would both be futile and lead us to our own destruction. In the end, wasn't it Dylan Thomas's own inability to deal with death that killed him? SpiderWoman from United Kingdom Comment 7 of 8, added on April 7th, 2006 at 12:50 AM. This is an interesting poetic view of grief and the afterlife, true. But has anyone here thought about the physical/historical reference? Dylan Thomas did a great deal of his writing in the wreckage and waste of the Battle of Britan. The dead person literaly spoken to is "London's Daughter" and the reference bears investigation Andrew from United States Comment 6 of 8, added on March 17th, 2006 at 6:35 PM. This is one of my favorite poems of those I have read by Thomas or by others. Its delight in metaphor, in condensing multiple thoughts i.e, in the least valley of sackcloth" conjuring up the psalmist's valley of the dead, sackcloth and ashes of grief, etc. and this goes on all through this wonderfully imagistic poem. But the technical prowess never supplants a sense of his deep feeling for this now, through his "refusal to mourn" monumental loss. For the child who he ironically refuses to mourn is not merely mourned but apostrophized as being "robed in the long friends, the dark veins of her mother, secret by the unmourning waters of the riding Thames" - she is not only monumental, but beyond mourning not because of petulance but because of her transcendece and apotheosis. "After the first death there is no other" conceit goes beyond the afterlife - it simply suspends the question with the positive thought that not so much after life that ends in death, but after the death that is uintrinsic to life - there will not be another, a loss, which unlike life, we need not mourn for. A magnificent poem that is most of all a pleasure to read and to listen to merely in terms of its conceits and its language. Frank De Canio from United States More Comments >> Are you looking for more information on this poem? Perhaps you are trying to analyze it? The poem, A Refusal To Mourn The Death, By Fire, Of A Child In London, has received 8 comments. Click here to read them, and perhaps post a comment of your own. Of course you can also always discuss poems by Dylan Thomas with others on the Poetry Connection poetry forum!

Poem Info
A Refusal To Mourn The Death, By Fire, Of A Child In London Last read: 2008-05-15 22:44:39 Viewed 11742 times. Added on March 17th, 2006 at 6:35 PM.

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