Funeral Blues by W. H. Auden

Here is a simply beautiful poem, for me it highlights the enormity of death. It emphasises how the tragic loss of a loved one will change your life forever and that from that moment on nothing in your life will ever be the same again.

I have a deep connection with this poem and found it extremely relatable to a lot of the exercises that we have been doing in class.

Funeral Blues

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.

by W. H. Auden

The pain and sense of tragedy in this piece of writing is utterly striking,

I hope that you all can connect to it as much as I can,

xxx