Funeral Blues

Question 1

Main speaker

Answer 1

Unnamed mourner grieving the death of someone close.

Question 2

Main themes

Answer 2

Love, death, grief

Question 3

Imagery

Answer 3

The Poet talks about clocks stoping this allows us to see how they fell as thought time is stopping.
The poet talks about a dog stopping barking this promotes the idea that because of their loss the world must come to a stop and be silent.
The poet talks about doves which are a symbol if purity and peace.
The poet describes their lost one as compass points this suggests to us that they are lost without them.

Question 4

Main Language Features

Answer 4

Symbolisation, metaphors, repetition

Question 5

Tone

Answer 5

The tone is sad and mournful

Question 6

Structure

Answer 6

4 stanzas with 4 lines, first person

Question 7

Context

Answer 7

English-American poet born February 1907 in York, England, American citizen from 1946.
‘the blues’:
(1) a type of slow, sad music which originated among black Americans in the southern US • (2) feelings of sadness or depression
Originally written as a satirical eulogy (a poem/song of mourning), in the style of ‘the blues’
It is often used as an elegy at funerals
Auden died suddenly of a heart attack in 1973, in Vienna (where he shared a house with his companion, the American poet Chester Kallman).

Question 8

Could be compared with

Answer 8

Laboratory (love),