FUNERAL BLUES- W H Auden
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 crêpe 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 wood;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
, FUNERAL BLUES
Questions and answers
1. What does the image of a ‘coffin’ represent in the poem? What
type of figure of speech is this?
The image of a coffin represents the deceased in the poem. This is a
metaphor/ euphemism.
2. Why is the title effective and how is it reflected in the poem?
The title is effective because it plays on the idea of the “blues”, a
type of music in which a singer explores their heartache/difficulties
but can also refer to the idea of being depressed/down. The idea of
heartache is explored in the poem by the way in which the speaker
has lost all hope in love and wants to isolate himself from everything.
3. Account for the inclusion of the colon in line 12.
A colon usually indicates that there is a secondary thought or
additional information to follow. The speaker, in using a colon,
reaches a final decision about his idea that “love would last forever”
by briefly concluding that “[he] was wrong]”
4. Identity the hyperbole in line 11 and discuss the effectiveness.
The speaker refers to the constant presence of his loved one when
he says he was “my noon, midnight, my talk, my song”. The
hyperbole in these images is effective because it shows how all-
consuming the speaker’s love is.
5. What does the use of natural phenomena like ‘stars’, ‘the moon’,
‘the sun’, ‘the ocean’, and ‘the wood’ convey about the speaker’s
attitude towards his loved one?
The use of natural phenomena in poetry is usually linked to the idea
of love. The fact that the speaker no longer wants to be reminded of
these shows just how deeply he loved the deceased since he can no
longer bear to think of his loss.
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 crêpe 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 wood;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
, FUNERAL BLUES
Questions and answers
1. What does the image of a ‘coffin’ represent in the poem? What
type of figure of speech is this?
The image of a coffin represents the deceased in the poem. This is a
metaphor/ euphemism.
2. Why is the title effective and how is it reflected in the poem?
The title is effective because it plays on the idea of the “blues”, a
type of music in which a singer explores their heartache/difficulties
but can also refer to the idea of being depressed/down. The idea of
heartache is explored in the poem by the way in which the speaker
has lost all hope in love and wants to isolate himself from everything.
3. Account for the inclusion of the colon in line 12.
A colon usually indicates that there is a secondary thought or
additional information to follow. The speaker, in using a colon,
reaches a final decision about his idea that “love would last forever”
by briefly concluding that “[he] was wrong]”
4. Identity the hyperbole in line 11 and discuss the effectiveness.
The speaker refers to the constant presence of his loved one when
he says he was “my noon, midnight, my talk, my song”. The
hyperbole in these images is effective because it shows how all-
consuming the speaker’s love is.
5. What does the use of natural phenomena like ‘stars’, ‘the moon’,
‘the sun’, ‘the ocean’, and ‘the wood’ convey about the speaker’s
attitude towards his loved one?
The use of natural phenomena in poetry is usually linked to the idea
of love. The fact that the speaker no longer wants to be reminded of
these shows just how deeply he loved the deceased since he can no
longer bear to think of his loss.
