Dylan Thomas - Before I Knocked

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. <br /> <br />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. <br /> <br />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. <br /> <br />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. <br /> <br />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. <br /> <br />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. <br /> <br />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. <br /> <br />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.<br /><br />Dylan Thomas<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/before-i-knocked/