The Power of The Hand

Dylan Thomas’s poem, “The Hand That Signed the Paper” is a poem that deals with the effects of war and the power of man to initiate or put an end to it with just the stroke of a pen. I specifically took note of the title of the poem as he chose to name it “The Hand That Signed the Paper” instead of “The Ruler/King That Signed the Paper.” His choice of words, “The Hand” instead of “The Ruler/King” was done to illustrate to the readers of this piece that the power of a man’s signature can be more powerful than the man himself.  His use of the figure of speech synecdoche, was present throughout the poem as he continually made reference to “The hand”, “The mighty hand”, and “The five Kings” as separate beings of the whole.  In stanza two the power of this hand to end or start a war was illustrated as he made mention of a goose’s quill as seen here, “A goose’s quill has put an end to murder … an end to talk.”  In stanza three, Thomas also made mention of the detrimental effects that this powerful hand can cause as he states, “The hand that signed the treaty bred a fever … famine grew … locusts came”; these two lines shows the indication of what the survivors and the people affected by the war may have to endure or what they endured.  Overall, Thomas’s use of literary devices and simple forms of expression has made this poem very profound as it was an easy read but very thought provoking.