"Funeral Blues" is a poem written by W. H. Auden in 1936. It is a poignant and emotive piece that speaks to the deep sense of loss and grief that comes with the passing of a loved one.
The poem begins with the lines "Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, / Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone," which set a mournful tone from the very start. The speaker is asking for all the trappings of daily life to be silenced, as if the world has come to a halt in the face of their grief.
The poem goes on to describe the sense of emptiness and despair that the speaker feels in the wake of their loved one's death. They speak of the "desolate shore" and the "unending night" that stretches out before them, conveying a sense of hopelessness and isolation.
One of the most poignant lines in the poem is "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." This line speaks to the all-encompassing nature of the speaker's love for the person who has died. They were everything to the speaker, and now that they are gone, the speaker feels as though their world has been turned upside down.
In the final stanza, the speaker addresses the person who has died directly, saying "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." This line speaks to the sense of finality and despair that the speaker feels. They are asking for the natural order of the world to be undone, as if the person's death has somehow undone everything that was good and right in the world.
Overall, "Funeral Blues" is a powerful and moving tribute to the enduring nature of love and the deep sense of loss that comes with the passing of a loved one. It speaks to the universal experience of grief and serves as a reminder that, in the face of loss, we are all connected by our shared humanity.
Funeral Blues Summary
The speaker believes that nothing in the world has meaning or value anymore because their loved one is gone. The first version of W. Dogs, who often bark during play, must be quieted since the speaker does not feel playful. There is scarcely a bad line in the book. Themes often revolved around class division and sexual repression. Auden, Carruth, Hayden, review, in The Hudson Review Vol.
Funeral Blues Analysis
Thomas finally uses first person in line 17 which demonstrates to the reader his connection to the theme. According to the literary critic John Fuller, Auden first wrote the poem for inclusion in the 1936 play, The Ascent of F6, an allegorical tale about power in which the hero is mountain climber Michael Ransom. The naming of directional points suggests that the deceased provided direction and meaning for the speaker. Thus, although a funeral provides the occasion for reflection and mourning, the impetus behind this poem is not to understand death, but to understand love. The time period of the story then jumps backward, with the narrator recalling the last time he saw his mother alive.
Sonny’s Blues Summary & Analysis
The death has caused a sensitivity to noise, and so the speaker instructs the listener to silence telephones, dogs, and pianos. In addition, the poet uses assonance to deliberate the mood, intention, and subject of the work. Though Auden was celebrated for the social and political commentary latent in his poetry, psychological and emotional themes remained essential to his idea of his own work. This passage again illustrates the hardships of growing up black in America by showing the pervasive fear of the future and the sense of antagonism lurking outside the safety of the home. The grief is as inescapable as it is unable to be quieted. Baldwin uses frightening language and imagery to explain the forces that drive young black men to drugs and crime, suggesting the inevitability of such lives because of the lack of other possibilities.
Analysis of "Funeral Blues" Poem
The narrator and Sonny had been suffering privately, and the act of simply writing a letter was able to bring some relief to both of them. The poet also employs certain assonance by using the words such as drove and glove to evoke deep feelings in the speaker. This is a failure of his familial obligation. As a result of overwhelming public demand for copies of the poem, Tell Me the Truth About Love: Ten Poems by W. Johnson, Richard, Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 20: British Poets, 1914—1945, Gale, 1983, pp. Using a great deal of allusions, imagery, and personification made it easier to understand what he is feeling. As in stanza two, the speaker here calls for all to recognize and echo his suffering.
Funeral Blues Essay Analysis Example
After Auden revised the poem, it was set to music by In the new version, the first two stanzas strike a somber note as the speaker prepares for the funeral of a loved one. Eberhart, Richard, review, in Boston Transcript, March 27, 1940, p. Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves. Essay Outline: Facing It 598 Words 3 Pages In conclusion, the poem is about a Vietnam war veteran who is visiting a war memorial and is having a hard time dealing with the fact that he is a survivor of the war. Auden And those who remain are left with the emptiness of the loss.
