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THE HAND THAT SIGNED THE PAPER

731 views · Published 30 January 2012 · 3:48 · Indexed 10 November 2026

Channel: Ken Middleton · 2012 · Music

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This song is a setting of a poem by Dylan Thomas. I wrote it almost half a century ago and I have remembered it as best I can. 

I have kept the accompaniment fairly simple, though the twiddly bits are a bit tricky.

The Hand That Signed the Paper
BY DYLAN THOMAS

The hand that signed the paper felled a city;   
Five sovereign fingers taxed the breath,   
Doubled the globe of dead and halved a country;   
These five kings did a king to death.

The mighty hand leads to a sloping shoulder,   
The finger joints are cramped with chalk;   
A goose's quill has put an end to murder   
That put an end to talk.

The hand that signed the treaty bred a fever,   
And famine grew, and locusts came;
Great is the hand that holds dominion over   
Man by a scribbled name.

The five kings count the dead but do not soften   
The crusted wound nor stroke the brow;   
A hand rules pity as a hand rules heaven;   
Hands have no tears to flow.

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