When All My Five And Country Senses See

Portrait of Dylan Thomas
Dylan Thomas 1914–1953

When all my five and country senses see, The fingers will forget green thumbs and mark How, through the halfmoon's vegetable eye, Husk of young stars and handfull zodiac, Love in the frost is pared and wintered by, The whispering ears will watch love drummed away Down breeze and shell to a discordant beach, And, lashed to syllables, the lynx tongue cry That her fond wounds are mended bitterly. My nostrils see her breath burn like a bush.

My one and noble heart has witnesses In all love's countries, that will grope awake; And when blind sleep drops on the spying senses, The heart is sensual, though five eyes break.

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