Do You Not Father Me Poem by Dylan Thomas

Do You Not Father Me

Rating: 3.4


Do you not father me, nor the erected arm
For my tall tower's sake cast in her stone?
Do you not mother me, nor, as I am,
The lovers' house, lie suffering my stain?
Do you not sister me, nor the erected crime
For my tall turrets carry as your sin?
Do you not brother me, nor, as you climb,
Adore my windows for their summer scene?

Am I not father, too, and the ascending boy,
The boy of woman and the wanton starer
Marking the flesh and summer in the bay?
Am I not sister, too, who is my saviour?
Am I not all of you by the directed sea
Where bird and shell are babbling in my tower?
Am I not you who front the tidy shore,
Nor roof of sand, nor yet the towering tiler?

You are all these, said she who gave me the long suck,
All these, he said who sacked the children's town,
Up rose the Abraham-man, mad for my sake,
They said, who hacked and humoured, they were mine.
I am, the tower told, felled by a timeless stroke,
Who razed my wooden folly stands aghast,
For man-begetters in the dry-as-paste,
The ringed-sea ghost, rise grimly from the wrack.

Do you not father me on the destroying sand?
You are your sisters' sire, said seaweedy,
The salt sucked dam and darlings of the land
Who play the proper gentleman and lady.
Shall I still be love's house on the widdershin earth,
Woe to the windy masons at my shelter?
Love's house, they answer, and the tower death
Lie all unknowing of the grave sin-eater.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Brian Jani 26 April 2014

Awesome I like this poem, check mine oit

11 6 Reply
Edward Kofi Louis 23 April 2017

Folly! ! Thanks for sharing.

6 8 Reply
Bernard F. Asuncion 23 April 2017

Summer scene... thanks for posting....

6 8 Reply

Stunning and perpetually epic for all ages & genres....An empowering theme of Never Give Up for what your Heart and providence says is all good and righteous'''....Tho' you're gone from this poetic plane...You still fly high o'er it and around it....You Rock, indeed!

9 3 Reply
Shaun Cronick 01 July 2019

Dylan you went far too young.Brilliant poetry!

5 0 Reply
Da yeet man 16 August 2018

Gaaaaaaaaaayayaya it is also gay and a bit more gay by the way it is gaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyy

3 5 Reply

nice one...agaisnt time and tide... lovely poem...10 Against time and tide You will correct And act For the generations ahead And well read Give no second thought As we have fought Against time and tide Now you have to decide

5 2 Reply
Susan Williams 23 April 2017

I am, the tower told, felled by a timeless stroke, Who razed my wooden folly stands aghast, - - - - - - I haven't slept in days now, so maybe that is why I keep seeing The Tower of Babel in myriad places in this poem

4 2 Reply
Joshua Adeyemi 23 April 2017

This is indeed a poem. Lovely!

4 2 Reply
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Dylan Thomas

Dylan Thomas

Swansea / Wales
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