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 pat the brow;
A hand rules pity as a hand rules heaven;
Hands have no tears to flow.

1.     Write the five acts carried out by “the hand” and the “sovereign fingers” in the first stanza: (2)

2.     How had the hand and fingers caused the acts listed? (1)

3.     What are the “sloping shoulders” and “finger joints cramped with chalk” tell you about the hand and the fingers? (2)

4.     What had the goose’s quill done according to the third stanza? Explain in your own words as far as possible.(1)

5.     What are the repercussions of the signing of the treaty in the third stanza? (1)

6.     How does the hand show its power, according to the third stanza? (2)

7.     What are the two things that the hand is unable to or unwilling to do? What is the reason for its inability or unwillingness? (2)

8.     Techniques:

a.     This poem is a (folk ballad, a literary ballad, a sonnet, an elegy). (1)

b.     The theme of the poem is (1)

                                                    i.     Tyranny of world leaders and its effect on the rest of the world

                                                   ii.     war

                                                  iii.     death

                                                 iv.     hands and fingers

9.     The poem has a (regular/ irregular) rhyming scheme.(1)

10.  Use of a part of something to imply the whole is a technique used by the poet throughout the poem. This technique is called (synecdoche, metaphor, alliteration, simile) 

Metonym: the hired swards were used to guard the city against its enemies. The pens of the state sang the praise of the king. 

Synecdoche:  The hand that rocked the cradle ruled the world. The head of the household