Funeral Blues

By: Wsytan Hugh Auden

First Stanza
Turn off the clocks and cut the
telephone cords. Give the dog a
juicy bone so it stops
barking. Make the pianos stop
playing and then bring out the
coffin and the mourners,
accompanied only by a quiet
drum.
Second Stanza

Let airplanes fly sadly over us

and write “He is Dead” in the
sky. Put black bows around the
white necks of the pigeons in the
street. Make the traffic cops wear
black gloves.
Third Stanza
He was everything to me: all the
points of the compass. He was my
work week and my day off. He
was every hour of my day, present
in everything I spoke or sang. I
thought our love would never end.
That wasn't true.
Fourth Stanza
I don’t want to see the stars
anymore: put out their
lights. Take the moon out of the
sky and take the sun apart. Pour
the ocean down the drain and
sweep the forest away. Nothing
good can ever happen again.
Summary
The poem expresses the poet's
overwhelming feelings of grief and
sorrow at the loss of a loved one. W.H.
Auden uses this poem as a method to
let out despondent emotions that he
seems to be consumed by. Wanting a
very public display of mourning for the
one he has now lost.
 Opinion Piece
The poem expresses the poet's
overwhelming feelings of grief
and sorrow at the loss of a
loved one. W.H. Auden uses
this poem as a method to let
out despondent emotions that
he seems to be consumed by.
Wanting a very public display
of mourning for the one he has
now lost.
How this came to be a poem…
"Funeral Blues" is a poem by
W.H. Auden, originally made
available in 1938. The speaker
has lost a crucial person, but
the rest of the world carries on
as if nothing has changed. He
asks that the world grieve as
he views this attitude as a form
of filthy pain.