The title comes from St. Paul's epistle to the Romans (6:9): "Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no dominion over him.
"[1] The poem portrays death as a guarantee of immortality,[2] drawing on imagery from John Donne's Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions.
Dead men naked they shall be one With the man in the wind and the west moon; When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone, They shall have stars at elbow and foot; Though they go mad they shall be sane, Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again; Though lovers be lost love shall not; And death shall have no dominion.
Under the windings of the sea They lying long shall not die windily; Twisting on racks when sinews give way, Strapped to a wheel, yet they shall not break; Faith in their hands shall snap in two, And the unicorn evils run them through; Split all ends up they shan't crack; And death shall have no dominion.
It revealed Thomas's personal beliefs pertaining to religion and the forces of nature, and included "And death shall have no dominion".