W. H. Auden: “Funeral Blues”
1 Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, QUATRAIN
2 Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
3 Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
4 Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
5 Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
6 Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
7 Put crêpe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
8 Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.
9 He was my North, my South, my East and West,
10 My working week and my Sunday rest,
11 My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
12 I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.
13 The stars are not wanted now; put out every one;
14 Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
15 Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood;
16 For nothing now can ever come to any good.
, 5
1 Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, QUATRAIN
2 Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
3 Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
4 Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
5 Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
6 Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
7 Put crêpe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
8 Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.
9 He was my North, my South, my East and West,
10 My working week and my Sunday rest,
11 My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
12 I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.
13 The stars are not wanted now; put out every one;
14 Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
15 Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood;
16 For nothing now can ever come to any good.
, 5
