Funeral blues what is it about

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone, Silence the pianos and with muffled drum Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come. Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead Scribbling on the sky the message He is Dead.

Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves, Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves. He was my North, my South, my East and West, My working week and my Sunday rest, My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song; I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong. The stars are not wanted now; put out every one, Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun, Pour away the ocean and sweep up the woods; For nothing now can ever come to any good.

The issue that the poem deals with is that of somebody losing a loved one, and therefore, the aforementioned person feeling as though their world has been destroyed. The idea of total loss is shown, and the poem evokes many emotions in the readers, including pain, despair, and sadness. The poem is of the narrative type, as it tells the story of the death of somebody and how that has affected the speaker.

It poked fun at a dead politician, which is maybe not so classy, but something we're all guilty of now and then. Then, in , Auden reworked the poem and turned it into a no-longer-satirical cabaret with the help of a guy named Benjamin Britten, who wrote the music. But the poem has had an even more interesting afterlife.

In , it was featured in the film Four Weddings and a Funeral , which was a massively successful British romantic comedy. One of the characters in the film does a heartbreaking rendition of the poem at his lover's funeral.

After the movie came out, interest in Auden from the general public skyrocketed, and publishers started re-issuing his poems right and left. And since Four Weddings and a Funeral , the poem has been taken really seriously as a dirge a mourning song, usually sung at a funeral. So even though it started as a mocking satire, Auden's changes to it and the culture's use of it have totally transformed the way we read it today. We hope that you haven't experienced the loss of a loved one in your life.

But chances are that you have. And that grief can be so terrible that you can't put your feelings into words. Auden captures the experience of grief, memory, devastation, and longing so poignantly that you don't need your own words to express how you feel. You have his. The author of this article, Dr Oliver Tearle, is a literary critic and lecturer in English at Loughborough University.

Image: W. When a poet does that he stamps his image on eternity. Auden intended this poem to be a song lyric, but I think we all like it better as a poem. Would you judge it any differently as a lyric? Enter your email address to subscribe to this site and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Email Address. Interesting Literature is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by linking to Amazon. Share this: Tweet. Like this: Like Loading Thomas Olivieri November 2, at pm. Subscribe via Email Enter your email address to subscribe to this site and receive notifications of new posts by email. Interesting Literature.

Privacy Policy. Loading Comments Email Required Name Required Website. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.