Light breaks where no sun shines;
Where no sea runs, the waters of the heart
Push in their tides;
And, broken ghosts with glowworms in their heads,
The things of light
File through the flesh where no flesh decks the bones.
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.
Dawn breaks behind the eyes;
From poles of skull and toe the windy blood
Slides like a sea;
Nor fenced, nor staked, the gushers of the sky
Spout to the rod
Divining in a smile the oil of tears.
Night in the sockets rounds,
Like some pitch moon, the limit of the globes;
Day lights the bone;
Where no cold is, the skinning gales unpin
The winter's robes;
The film of spring is hanging from the lids.
Light breaks on secret lots,
On tips of thought where thoughts smell in the rain;
When logics die,
The secret of the soil grows through the eye,
And blood jumps in the sun;
Above the waste allotments the dawn halts.
His wife Caitlin thought this poem was about sexual intercourse
He may be reknowned for his famous villanelle, but I think this is the best poem that Dylan Thomas ever wrote. His early stuff was by far the best and he wrote this while still in his teens (albeit if it was halfway thru his life) . It is magical and unforgettable. Thank you Dylan! Sean
Metaphors bound to the earth. The ground shakes whenever Thomas's words are spoken.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
A METAPHORIC masterpiece in true...