FUNERAL BLUES
1. HISTORICAL CONTEXT
a) Who was the poem written by? Where was the poet from? When was he
born? When did he die? What other poems did he write? When did he write
them?
The poem was written by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden). He was born in
York, England, on February 21st 1907. Despite being British, he moved to New
York (in the United States) in 1939 and became an American citizen.
In 1972 he moved to Oxford. He died in Vienna on September 29 th 1973.
These are some of the other poems that he wrote:
Lullaby
As I Walked Out One Evening
Epitaph on a Tyrant
In Memory of W. B. Yeats
The Unknown Citizen
September 1, 1939
In Memory of Sigmund Freud
The Fall of Rome
The Shield of Achilles
The More Loving One
On the Circuit
b) When was it written?
The original version (the first one), which had five stanzas, was written in 1936.
However, the final version was written in 1938 and it only has four stanzas.
c) What important events happened or were happening in the world around
that time?
After the 1929 Stock Exchange Crash – Great Recession in the USA
1933 – rise of Hitler in Germany
1939 – I World War
1936-1939 – Spanish Civil War
2. FORMAL ANALYSIS OF THE POEM
a) How many stanzas does the poem have?
The poem has four stanzas of 6 verses each.
b) What’s the rhyme scheme?
The rhyme scheme is AABB, as in every stanza the first verse rhymes with
the second and the third with the fourth.
c) Are there any rhetorical figures? Which?
In the poem there is an antithesis (white necks of the public doves / black
cotton gloves). There is also an anaphora (He was my North, my South, my
East and West; my working week…)
3. CONTENT
a) What is the poem about? What are the main ideas? Summarise it in two
sentences.
The poem is about the death of a loved one and the effect this has on the
deceased’s partner. It also talks about the feelings of nothingness and
emptiness the person is left with after his partner’s death.
b) What is the main message of each stanza? What is the poet trying to
convey?
chooses to mention an instrument that
measures time (the clock). The clock being stopped may signify
the fact that he who died has run out of time and also to ask those
who knew him to stop what they are doing and reflect.
In the first stanza, the poet
In this same stanza, the poet also uses the image of a telephone,
which relates to communication – or, more like it, the lack of it.
The telephone being cut off brings forth the idea of silence. Auden
does this to show the deceased the respect they deserve. He
believes in honoring the dead with a moment of silence to pay
respect He wishes time to stand still, and for silence.
In the second stanza the poet uses the metaphoric image of
"aeroplanes circling moaning overhead" to convey the pointlessness
of his life and also his grief. What point is there for aeroplanes to fly
in circles? He is comparing the pointlessness of flying in circles to his
life without his partner.
In the third stanza, Auden seems to be giving the reader the background on
what has happened (i.e. that his partner has died).
Finally, in the last stanza the poet shows his despair after his loved one’s death.
In order to do that, he chooses to use a range of negatively connotated words
such ‘dismantle’, ‘pour away’ and ‘sweep up’, which convey an image of
destruction and devastation.
the word ‘nothing’ in the closing line of the
poem also conveys the idea of waste and rejection. In this last
line, Auden seems to say that everything after the loss of his loved
one is pointless and meaningless and nothing worthwhile will ever
be fulfilled again.
In addition, the use of
c) Why are the first two stanzas written in the imperative mode?
The first two stanzas are written in the imperative because the poet is
speaking in a very demanding tone. His demands suggest a need to
regain control over his helplessness in the face of death. That is due
to the fact that, in his despair, he is trying to grab the reader’s
attention and to compel him to stop what he/she is doing and to get
life to stand still. For now, this may be in respect for the dead, but
later it seems to be because he feels that the loss of a loved one
leaves no meaning in time, or in senses such as hearing.
4. REACTING TO THE POEM
a) From your point of point, how did the poet feel when he wrote the poem?
How does this show?
From my point of view, the poet probably felt devastated after this person’s
death. It must have been his partner because in the poem he says: “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”. Basically, this comes to show that the
deceased meant a lot to the poet. This also becomes apparent in the verse “I
thought that love would last forever: I was wrong”, in which the poet conveys
the message that he had the illusion love would always keep him and his
partner together, but it didn’t because death prevented it. This despair is
especially explicit in the last stanza, which portrays the world from a nihilistic
point of view, where everything has been devastated. This image is probably
the reflection of how the poet is feeling deep down inside in these rough times.
b) As you see it, does the translated version convey the same
message/feelings? Why (not)?
The students’ own opinion.
c) How does the poem make you feel? Why?
The students’ own opinion.