Dylan Thomas
Despite Dylan Thomas’ often obscure images, he expresses a clear message of religious devotion in many of his poems. He creates images that reflect God’s connection with the earth and body. In “And death shall have no dominion,” Thomas portrays the redemption of the soul in death, and the soul’s liberation into harmony with nature and God. Thomas best depicts his beliefs, though abstract and complicated, to the reader with the use of analogies and images of God’s presence in nature. Appreciating the virtue of humility in “Shall gods be said to thump the clouds,” Thomas associates God with thunder, rainbows, and night only to remind us that He is even more present in a simple stone as He is in other great entities. In “The force that through the green fuse drives the flower,” Thomas again makes the connection of body and earth, implying that there is only one holy force that has created all motion and life on this planet. This force, because it is so pure and boundless, is present in the shadows and poverty of our world, as depicted in “Light breaks where no sun shines.” God’s sacred presence in the body and earth is the ultimate theme within these chosen poems. In “The force that through the green fuse drives the flower,” Dylan Thomas illustrates the connection between the earth, the body, and God. He discusses how both nature and man are propelled by the same holy force and therefore are united. He does not propose the question of how the stem grows to create a flower or how blood circulates within the body, but rather what is the ultimate force behind all motion and life on the earth. “The force that through the green fuse drives the flower / Drives my green age/…The force that drives the water through the rocks / Drives my red blood;” In these analogies, Thomas humbles the human race and depicts God’s presence in all natural things,