<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=373499" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Before I Knocked</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Before I knocked and flesh let enter,<br>With liquid hands tapped on the womb,<br>I who was as shapeless as the water<br>That shaped the Jordan near my home<br>Was brother to Mnetha's daughter<br>And sister to the fathering worm.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I who was deaf to spring and summer,<br>Who knew not sun nor moon by name,<br>Felt thud beneath my flesh's armour,<br>As yet was in a molten form<br>The leaden stars, the rainy hammer<br>Swung by my father from his dome.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I knew the message of the winter,<br>The darted hail, the childish snow,<br>And the wind was my sister suitor;<br>Wind in me leaped, the hellborn dew;<br>My veins flowed with the Eastern weather;<br>Ungotten I knew night and day.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">As yet ungotten, I did suffer;<br>The rack of dreams my lily bones<br>Did twist into a living cipher,<br>And flesh was snipped to cross the lines<br>Of gallow crosses on the liver<br>And brambles in the wringing brains.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">My throat knew thirst before the structure<br>Of skin and vein around the well<br>Where words and water make a mixture<br>Unfailing till the blood runs foul;<br>My heart knew love, my belly hunger;<br>I smelt the maggot in my stool.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And time cast forth my mortal creature<br>To drift or drown upon the seas<br>Acquainted with the salt adventure<br>Of tides that never touch the shores.<br>I who was rich was made the richer<br>By sipping at the vine of days.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I, born of flesh and ghost, was neither<br>A ghost nor man, but mortal ghost.<br>And I was struck down by death's feather.<br>I was a mortal to the last<br>Long breath that carried to my father<br>The message of his dying christ.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">You who bow down at cross and altar,<br>Remember me and pity Him<br>Who took my flesh and bone for armour<br>And doublecrossed my mother's womb.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Dylan+Thomas">Dylan Thomas</a><div class=q> <img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share"> <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=373499" data-title="Before I Knocked de Dylan Thomas" data-description="Before I knocked and flesh let enter, With liquid hands tapped on the womb, I who was as shapeless as the water That shaped the Jordan near my home Was brother to Mnetha's daughter And sister to the fathering worm. I who was deaf to spring and su..."></div> </div> </div>

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