Funeral
Blues
WH Auden
25th September 2023
Starter
What are the
connotations of
the colour blue?
Learning Intentions
Today we will:
• Begin looking at a poem
from the set IGCSE texts.
• Analyse the poem
• Understand the key
themes and messages in
the poem
W. H. Auden: ‘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 wood;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
Rhyme scheme/structure
• This poem has 16 lines, split into four quatrains.
• Each quatrain consists of two rhyming couplets, that
is, the first two lines and the last two lines of each
stanza rhyme.
• This poem’s rhyme scheme is AABB.
• This provides a consistent rhythm throughout the
poem and is reminiscent of a funeral march’s
repetitive drum.
What are your first impressions?
What do you
think the
meaning of
this poem is?
Think: 10 seconds
Pair: 30 seconds
Share: I will choose people to share
Why do you
think this
poem was
written?
When do
you think
this poem
was written?
• The poem‘s meaning has changed over time – it‘s funny how literature does
this!
• Auden first wrote it in 1936 as part of a philosophical/satirical theatre
production.
• In the play, the poem was snarky, mocking, and overblown. It poked fun at a
dead politician.
Task: Read the poem now as if it is mocking a terrible person’s death in a
sarcastic manner.
• You will probably have noticed how it might be interpreted as the opposite
to the sincere, sorrowful reading we would expect.
Question (discuss and be ready to feedback): which images in the poem now
seem most sarcastic, and why?
What is an elegy?
(in modern literature) a poem of serious
reflection, typically a lament for the dead.
Task
Define an elegy (in
your own words) and
explain why this
poem is one.
Match Match
up the techniques,
and comments
with arrows.
Task:
up thequotes,
techniques,
quotes,
and
comments
‘For nothing now can
ever come to any good’
Alliteration
Personification
Metaphor
‘mourners’
‘muffled’
‘moaning’
The sound of an aeroplane is long and
droning like mourners crying profusely at
funerals.
Indicative of how the deceased had
given the speaker direction and
purpose in life.
‘My noon, my midnight’
‘My talk, my song’
Represents the speaker’s deep and
utter devastation by his loss of his
loved one.
‘Stop all the clocks’, ‘cut off
the telephone’
Reflects the happiness and joy they
had found in each other’s company.
‘Let aeroplanes circle moaning
overhead’
Hyperbole
‘He was my North, my
South, my East and West’
This is the exaggeration of the
speaker’s grief so much so that he
wants the world to come to a
standstill.
Indicative of the speaker trying to stifle
his crying and stop the tears from
flowing.
Answers!
Alliteration
(sound imagery)
‘For nothing now can ever
come to any good’
‘mourners’
‘muffled’
‘moaning’
‘My noon, my midnight’
‘My talk, my song’
Personification
Metaphor
Hyperbole
‘Stop all the
clocks’, ‘cut
off the
telephone’
‘Let
aeroplanes
circle moaning
overhead’
‘He was my North,
my South, my East
and West’
The sound of an aeroplane is long and droning
like mourners crying profusely at funerals.
Indicative of how the deceased had given
the speaker direction and purpose in life.
Represents the speaker’s deep and utter
devastation by his loss of his loved one.
Reflects the happiness and
joy they had found in each
other’s company.
This is the exaggeration of the speaker’s
grief so much so that he wants the world
to come to a standstill.
Indicative of the speaker trying to stifle his
crying and stop the tears from flowing.
‘Stop all the clocks’: stops the noise and
signifies the stopping of time. When
somebody dies their time is said to be up
and this represents that.
’Cut off the telephone’, says the speaker,
desiring silence, but also no longer valuing the
companionship and human connection that
the telephone could bring.
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.
The silenced pianos mean the silencing of song,
and dance, and party. All that needs to be heard is
the sound of the funeral drums as the mourners
congregate around the coffin of the dead.
• The poem begins with a series of harsh
commands (imperatives)
• Tone of urgency
• The speaker sounds forceful, even angry.
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
This is a very public acknowledgement
of death. Why do you think ‘He is
Dead’. Is capitalised?
The airplanes are "moaning," as if expressing their own
sadness over the person being grieved for. Everything
surrounding him expresses the deep sorrow he feels. And
anything that is not in keeping with his mourning is
something he wishes to shut off.
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.
This poem was written for a play
that was rewritten as a cabaret, is
this indicated by the cotton gloves?
• What do white
doves typically
represent?
• What might this
symbolise
within the
poem?
• Why is this
significant?
‘public doves’: ambiguity. Does he
mean pigeons or does it represent
more? Is he earnest or is it a joke?
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.
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 wood;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
Personal
Vs
Public?
Tone of urgency.
Ironic that stop is the first word
in the poem.
The era of the poem is considerered modernist. Here, Auden absurdedly
mingles sincerety with sarcasm, referencing objects from the time.
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.
He is Dead is capitalized. Does this associate the man with the divine?
A pair of rhyming lines in iambic pentameters are known
as heroic couplets, as is the case within this poem.
Purposeful comma splices to increase the pace.
Note the demand for silence. The poet is asking for all aspects of life to be
halted for this very situation. Could be mocking or earnest – ambiguous.
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,
The
playthe
was traffic
rewrittenpolicemen
as a cabaret. Is this
indicated
by the
cotton gloves?
Let
wear
black
cotton
gloves.
His requests become more and more difficult to carry out and a lot
more ridiculous. Alternatively, the inclusion of aeroplanes may also be
a form of a military sign of respect.
Further ambiguity. Does he mean pigeons, or is this a symbol
for peace? Is this a joke or in earnest?
The poet has lost his or her direction in life. This is more profound than being
He was my North, my South, my East and West, physically lost as it also conveys a sense of helplessness as one is unable to
revive the dead. It is in this sense that the poet is now spiritually lost.
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
The words: “noon” and “midnight” together cover, by synecdoche
Sudden
realization
that
nothing
lasts
forever.
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong. (parts standing for the whole), all hours of the day.
There was the physical, the (borderline) ridiculous, the
The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,
metaphysical, and now the natural.
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,
Emotional breakdown of the poet as his grief comes to a climax
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood;
For
now wood
cancould
everbecome
tofor…?
anyAgain,
good.
Stars, nothing
sun, moon, ocean,
metaphors
is this ridiculous hyperbole or earnest romantic feelings of loss and despair? You decide.
The repetition of ‘my’ underscores
the intense connection between
the speaker and this person.
Directions: this person was literally the writers whole world.
The poet has lost his or her direction in life. This is more profound than being
physically lost as it also conveys a sense of helplessness as one is unable to
revive the dead. It is in this sense that the poet is now spiritually lost.
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.
Metaphors. The last two lines imply that the dead man filled
every hour of the speaker's day. He brought conversation and joy
into the speaker's life.
•While the previous lines were lovely and metaphorical, this one
is harsh: Your loved ones will die. No love lasts forever.
‘I was wrong’:
Sudden realization
that nothing lasts
forever.
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.
Hopeless: In a lot of elegies the speaker
will offer some hope for the future, or
will talk about how the dead person will
live on in memories and poetry. There's
usually a small moment of optimism
buried somewhere in them. But not in
Auden's "Funeral Blues."
Extreme, hyperbolic commands are his expressions
of his extreme grief.
Even though no one could ever "dismantle the sun,"
the speaker's grief is so intense that he wishes that
we could. Romantic and natural images
(stars/moon/sun) are too painful for him. It's almost
as if he wants to blot out everything in the world
except his own mourning
Task: Answer these questions in pairs
1. Notice the plea for certain actions to take place in the first
stanza. a) Why would someone want to ‘Stop all the clocks’
(line 1)? b) Identify all the references to sound. c) Why would
the speaker want these sounds to stop?
2. Why do you think capital letters have been used in ‘He is Dead’
(line 6)?
3. Consider the implications of the description ‘He was my North,
my South, my East and West’ (line 9).
4. Link the verbs in the final stanza to their objects: ‘put out’ (line
13), ‘pack up’, ‘dismantle’ (line 14), ‘Pour away’ and ‘sweep’
(line 15). In what way are these verbs appropriate?
Task
1.List the ways in which the speaker asks society to mourn the loss of
his partner.
2.Identify the literary device in line 9 and comment on its
effectiveness.
3.What does the speaker realise when he says ‘I was wrong’?
4.Describe the change in tone that occurs in line12.
Point
Evidence (quote)
Technique
Analysis
Link back to question
Extension task: How effective is this poem as an
expression of loss and grief?
Write a PETAL paragraph answering this
question.
Plenary
1a. What do you
think the most
impactful (saddest)
line of the poem is?
1b. Why?
W. H. Auden: “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 wood;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
Task: Your job is convert the poem into a dramatic
performance in a group of 2 or 3, performing it in
various styles. You have one lesson to do this now.
Ideas for a possible performance:
One person reads and the others act out the words
physically using movement, body language and facial
expressions.
or
All group member read the poem, but you use voice for
emphasis and to convey emotions found in the poem.
or
All group members turn the poem into a script, adding
your own words where necessary, and perform your
dramatic script to the class.
or
A combination of two or more of the above ideas, or
make your own performance ideas to bring the poem to
life.
W. H. Auden: “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.
Performance Time
As we watch the performances, give each team a mark
out of five for the following four criteria:
A: Voice
1
2
3
4
5
3
4
5
4
5
4
5
B: Body Language
1
2
C: Audience Engagement
1
2
3
D: Performance Commitment
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.
1
2
3