Funeral blues Flashcards
What is the main theme of ‘Funeral Blues’ by W.H. Auden?
The poem explores themes of bereavement, grief, and loss, particularly in the context of a gay relationship between the speaker and an unnamed lover.
What mood does the speaker aim to create in the poem?
The speaker aims to create a mood of solemnity and complete silence during the funeral, desiring no distractions from everyday life.
How does the poem’s structure contribute to its meaning?
The poem consists of four stanzas of four lines each, with a regular rhyme scheme, which helps convey the speaker’s emotional progression from public mourning to personal loss.
What literary devices are used in the first stanza?
The first stanza employs imperative verbs to give commands about silencing everyday sounds, creating an atmosphere of respectful quietness.
What is the significance of the title ‘Funeral Blues’?
The title suggests a double meaning, referring to both the musical connotation of ‘blues’ and its associations with feelings of sadness and depression.
How does the speaker’s tone change throughout the poem?
The tone shifts from public imperatives in the first two stanzas to deeply personal reflections in the third stanza, culminating in a sense of desolation in the fourth.
What cultural context is relevant to ‘Funeral Blues’?
The poem reflects cultural themes of loss and mourning, with connections to the blues music genre, which conveys sadness and emotional depth.
What historical background is associated with W.H. Auden?
W.H. Auden was an English-American poet born in 1907, who became a U.S. citizen in 1946 and is known for his exploration of themes such as love and loss.
What is the significance of the phrase ‘I thought that love would last for ever’?
This phrase expresses the speaker’s disillusionment about the permanence of love, highlighting the pain of loss and the fragility of relationships.
How does the final stanza reflect the speaker’s emotional state?
The final stanza conveys a mood of desolation, with the speaker expressing that nothing in the universe holds meaning after the loss of the loved one.
Quotes in stanza 1
imperative form of the verbs (six in the stanza ‘Stop… / cut off… / Prevent… / Silence… / Bring out… / let…’) - speaking voice giving commands, instructions, regarding everyday sounds or noises being ‘silenced’ (represented by ‘clocks’ ticking/chiming, ‘telephones’ ringing, ‘dogs’ barking, ‘pianos’ playing):
• ‘clocks’ and ‘telephones’ also symbols, respectively of time and communication - adding impressions of the speaker wanting time to stand still and no other communication to be happening, so that there would be no possibility of distraction at all, allowing a single focus, on the ‘coffin’ and the deceased.
Quotes in stanza 2
imperative verbs continue to reflect the speaker’s wishes (‘Let… / Put… / Let…’)
• personification - ‘aeroplanes’ are presented ‘moaning’ and ‘scribbling’ in the sky, providing sound and visual images, adding a more public aspect to the funereal atmosphere, appropriate to the death of a significant individual, a public figure (if taken literally - however, they can also be taken metaphorically, non-literally, as indicators of the speaker’s personal desolation)
Quotes in stanza 3
the repetition of ‘my’ (nine times in the stanza) helps to convey the closeness of the past relationship with the loved-one, and the implied bereft state of the speaker in the present
• the daily dependence of the speaker on the loved-one, both at times of work and leisure, is reflected in the alliterative phrase ‘working week’, and the contrasting phrase ‘Sunday rest’
Quotes in stanza 4
the opening statement, ‘The stars are not wanted now’, introduces the mood of desolation which builds through the final lines - ‘stars’ are a conventional symbol of the wonder of the universe; the speaker has lost the sense of wonder
• imperatives are used again to reflect the speaker’s dispirited condition (‘…put out… / Pack up…..dismantle / Pour away…..sweep up…’)
