What are the themes found in "The Hand That Signed the Paper"?

The primary theme of Dylan Thomas’s poem is power. Specifically, the poet addresses the difference between earthly, political power and spiritual power. A related theme is the relationship between military and diplomatic solutions in matters of state. "The hand" of the title is the hand of a ruler, most likely a king, as this person’s fingers are referred to as "five kings." "The paper" is a treaty that ends a war but, in the process, creates a set of conditions that negatively affect the people of the two countries that are thereby created out of one country. Among those conditions are “famine” and a plague of insects: “locusts came.” Collectively, the stanzas express the central theme which is best expressed in the line, “Great is the hand that holds dominion over / Man by a scribbled name.” This second hand is the hand of God, with its “dominion over Man.”