Funeral Blues Flashcards
‘Stop’ ‘cut off’ ‘prevent’ ‘silence’ ‘bring’ ‘let’
Imperatives:
- create sense of immediacy
-he needs the world to to stop for the funeral + mourn w/ him
-creates a feeling of desesperation
‘Stop all clocks’
Symbolism: he wants time to stop + doesn’t want anyone to move on without him
-world can’t contine without this person
‘Cut off the telephone’
-symbolism:
-wants to stop communication
-for a moment of silence to admire the loss
-shows desesperation of loss + his need for revognition
‘Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone’
-even the dog needs to grief
- ‘juicy’: -adjective choice -pleasurable
- wants to remove all enjoyment
‘Silence the pianos and with a muffled drum’
-symolism of pianos (joy + music)
-Juxtaposes joy and music w/ silence and solemnity
-wants all joy to disappear and everyone to mourn the loss
-hyperbolic imagery to highlight desesperation he feels + his need to stop tye world & mourn
‘Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead’
-personifies aeroplanes (even aeroplanes are mourning)
-verb choice ‘circling’ + enjambment –> creates a sense of continuous pain and grief
‘Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead’
- on the sky for all the world who couldn’t see
- capitalisation ‘He Is Dead’ emphasizes the importance of the death.
‘Let the traffic policeman wear black cotton gloves
-asking for public recognition in a hyperbolic way
-adjective choice ‘black’ symbolizes grief + mourning
‘He was my North, my South, my East and West’
-repetition of possessive personal prounoun: dead person belonged to him + meant the world for him + was crucial in his life
-covered all the compass points: this person was his direction + purpose + guided him through life (showing the strong love)
‘The stars are not wanted now: put out everyone’
- the death came w/ the end of love –> there is no longer any point to the stars
-His beloved has died as well as the moon and the stars (figuratively)
-replaced by darkness and sorrow
-The world would be in total darkness - suiting the depressed mood of the poet.
-The hyperbole emphasises his sense of despair
-starts are symbol of guidance + dreams —> speaker has given up
‘Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood’
-ocean + woods represent the beauty of nature
-ocean + wood – represent the land and the sea – he wants it all to disappear
-He wants the world to come to an end because his world has ended
-Hyperbole: indicates his intense grief and despair.
Themes
-public vs private
-loss
-love
-grief
-death
Tone
Stanza 1+2= commanding
Stanza 3 =sentimental+hopeless
Stanza 4 =irrational/forceful & depressive
Summary
-Auden wrote this poem for a play, mocking ceremonies of public grieving
-poetic voice grieves loss of a person he loved
- he explores desesperation that comes w/ losing a person you love so much
Theme of grief + isolation
What makes grief so terrible
-isolation it creates
+it’s all encompassing
Nature of grief = make’s it seem as if all has ended
World doesn’t stop, starts keep shining, clocks ticking
—> frustrates speaker, seems to belittle speaker’s grief + disrespects memory of dead person
