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Poet: Dylan Thomas
Poem: Light Breaks Where No Sun Shines
Volume: 18 Poems
Year: Published/Written in 1934
Comment 5 of 5, added on June 2nd, 2006 at 10:50 AM.
The sexual imagery is obvious on a first or second reading, but I think Thomas is digging for something a little deeper than a strictly physical meaning. Although I have not worked out the complete interpretation, I believe he is commenting on the connection between our human bodies and the earth. Within us we have moving "water" where "no sea runs." When we get down to the basics--the bones and the candle wick ("where no wax is the candle shows its hairs)--that is where elemental things are somewhat the same. Once we die and no longer have "light" behind our eyes (in our brains), then the seeds of the earth grow through our decaying bodies and the blood that once flowed in our veins becomes part of the earth again. I am still working on understanding this poem, but these are some thoughts.
S. Poff from United States
Comment 4 of 5, added on May 15th, 2006 at 1:43 AM.
the poem seems to portray an individual's first experience of phallic gratification which leads him to a kind of fulfilment.yet this fulfilment is only partial because it is accompanied by a sense of loss of chastity and purity of the body and the mind.therefore the act of sexual intercourse is a kind of enlightenment to him, it is like light breaking upon darkness or ignorance or even innocence, thus illuminating it. the loss in the process of illumination is the loss of purity of the body , the idea which is ingrained into the consciousness of yhe individual.
sree.sin from India
Comment 3 of 5, added on April 19th, 2006 at 4:40 PM.
Clearly Thomas trying to be a smartalec.
Alusion to homosexual (anal) intercourse with younger partners drenched in heavy imagery and cadence to by pass it as a normal poem:
Light breaks where no sun shines;
"Something new happening in the anal area"
Where no sea runs, the waters of the heart
Push in their tides;
"Where there was none now love pushes in it tides"
A candle in the thighs
Warms youth and seed and burns the seeds of age;
Where no seed stirs,
The fruit of man unwrinkles in the stars,
Bright as a fig;
Where no wax is, the candle shows its hairs.
"the old man having an erection"
the gushers of the sky
Spout to the rod
no comment
J Lo from United States
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The sexual imagery is obvious on a first or second reading, but I think Thomas is digging for something a little deeper than a strictly physical meaning. Although I have not worked out the complete interpretation, I believe he is commenting on the connection between our human bodies and the earth. Within us we have moving "water" where "no sea runs." When we get down to the basics--the bones and the candle wick ("where no wax is the candle shows its hairs)--that is where elemental things are somewhat the same. Once we die and no longer have "light" behind our eyes (in our brains), then the seeds of the earth grow through our decaying bodies and the blood that once flowed in our veins becomes part of the earth again. I am still working on understanding this poem, but these are some thoughts.
S. Poff from United States