Funeral Blues Revison

Question 1

Who wrote Funeral Blues?

Answer 1

W H Auden

Question 2

What was Funeral Blues originally written as?

Answer 2

A snarky satire for a play that made fun of a dead politician.

Question 3

What are the three main ideas in Funeral Blues?

Answer 3

1. The deep sorrow and grief from loss
2. The irrational immensity of grief
3. The irony that this poem was making fun of politicians and how dramatic their deaths are made

Question 4

What are two poetic techniques in Funeral Blues with examples?

Answer 4

“He was my North” - metaphor for immense love and how the writer felt that this person was their direction in life.
“My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song” - asyndeton emphasizes how much the person meant to the writer that he cannot stop expressing himself.