Funeral Blues

Funeral Blues
WH Auden
Grief is the price we pay for love.
Poet and Poem
● “Funeral Blues” was written by the British poet W.H. Auden and first
published in 1938.
● It's a poem about the immensity of grief: the speaker has lost someone
important, but the rest of the world doesn’t slow down or stop to pay its
respects—everything just keeps going as if nothing has happened.
● It is a very well-known poem- one of the most famous in the world.
● Often quoted in movies.
The poem ‘Funeral Blues’ is a
lament for a friend.
Blues’ is an American word for a sad
song
Lament: To express grief or mourn:
lament a death.
VOCABULARY
Muffled: A sound that is not very audible or distinct.
Crepe bows: A mourning wristband traditionally constructed of

this material and worn in black as a show of respect.
STRUCTURE + FORM
• Regular structure: Auden uses quatrains, four line stanzas, to
impose a regular structure on the chaotic emotions which the
speaker feels - perhaps to show his wish to try and control the
external world.
• These quatrains have a regular rhyme scheme of AABB, with slightly
varying end sounds.
• The use of rhyming couplets consistently throughout creates a sense
of harmony, demonstrating the love that the speaker felt for the
deceased - as couplets are traditionally used in love poetry.
• Elegy: Given that poem is intended to commemorate someone who

has died, "Funeral Blues" is best viewed as an elegy.
• Phrases such as “Scribbling on the sky the message 'He is Dead'.”
overtly allude to the elegiac form, and the entire poem serves as a
dedication to the importance of a person who has now passed away,
but whose life made a significant impact on the world.
Summary of Funeral Blues
first stanza
● Auden wants everything normal to stop while the
funeral of his friend is taking place.
● The poet is so sad he wants to hush the sound of
clocks because of the death of his friend.
● He doesn‘t want to hear telephones ringing, the
barking of dogs or music—including the sound of
pianos.
● As a mark of respect to his dead friend, he desires
funeral drums to beat with a low sound.
Summary of Funeral
Blues
second stanza
 Auden calls for aeroplanes to circle overhead to
mark the death of his friend. He would like the
planes to notify everybody about the death of
his dear friend. The sound of the planes would
be like a mourning sound.
 Auden would like white doves with black bows
to be released in honour of his friend.
 He grief is so great that he would like the traffic
police to wear black gloves instead of the
normal white gloves they use to direct traffic.
Summary of Funeral
Blues
Stanza Three
● Contains an outpouring of emotions.
● Auden states his friend meant everything to him.
● He was his compass or guide. He was his best supporter during the
working week. He was his companion on Sunday, his rest day.
● Auden felt inseparable from his friend. He was there in his thoughts at
every noon, at midnight, in his conversations. At key times everyday he
saw or thought about him. Auden’s friend was the song in his soul.
● Auden believed he would always have his friend, but he was wrong.
Summary of Funeral Blues
stanza four
● Auden shows us how devastated he feels without his friend.
● As in the first stanza, he wants to cancel or abolish certain
things because of his grief.
● He wants to destroy the universe: the stars, moon and sun.
● Auden wants to get rid of the oceans and forests of the earth.
● There is no point in living without his friend. The world cannot
continue.
Themes
⚫ The theme of this poem is death and
grief.
⚫ The speaker is expressing grief at the
death of a loved one. There is a sense
that the speaker wants the world to come
to an end now that his beloved is no
longer in the world “the stars are not
wanted now” and “pour away the ocean”.
Tone/Mood
⚫ The tone of the poem is sadness and almost desperation
that a person who was so loved is now gone.
⚫ The speaker wants the world to stop in recognition of the

loss of this beloved person “Stop all the clocks, cut off the
telephone”
Poetic techniques
⚫ There are many interesting features in the language of
this poem.
⚫ Rhyme: there are several examples of rhyme

⚫ “overhead” and “dead”
⚫ “doves” and “gloves”
⚫ “West” and “rest”
⚫ “song” and “wrong”
Poetic techniques:‘He was my North, my South, my East
and West’
Metaphors
● In the third stanza the
poet states that his
dead friend was his
compass – this
metaphor shows love.
This person was his
everything. He gave
him direction and
guidance.
Poetic techniques:’Let aeroplanes circle
moaning overhead’
‘
Personification
◆ Auden personifies
aeroplanes by imagining
their engines moaning in
grief overhead. In Auden’s
mind even objects like an
aeroplane is grieving the
loss.
Poetic techniques: ‘Pack up the moon and
dismantle the sun’.
Hyperbole : (statements which

are exaggerated).
◆ Auden uses hyperbole to get
across his love for his friend.
◆ He uses impossible situations
or exaggerated situations to
show he doesn’t see the point
of going on, e.g. you cannot
pack up the moon.
Poetic Techniques:
Alliteration
● The frequent use of
words beginning with

“m” between lines three
and six to emphasise the
feelings of grief –
muffled, moaning and
mourning.
Poetic Techniques
Alliteration
The frequent use of words beginning
with “m” between lines three and six
to emphasise the feelings of grief –
muffled, moaning and mourning.
Poetic Devices
Alliteration Anaphora
Auden also employs anaphora, the
"the clocks, cut off" - the repeated ‘c’
repetition of a word or phrase at the
sound here creates a feeling of
start of several lines. For instance,
being cut off, as if time itself has
the imperative "Let" is used often, to
been cut. Furthermore, the phrase
express the speaker’s despair,
"working week“ underscores the
whereas the possessive pronoun "
amount of time which the speaker
My" is used at the beginning of lines
spent under the deceased’s
two and three of the third stanza to
influence while he was alive, and
emphasise the sense of belonging
that he was also his ‘Sunday rest’
which the speaker felt towards the
too.
deceased.

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Funeral Blues

Crepe bows: A mourning wristband traditionally constructed of

• Elegy: Given that poem is intended to commemorate someone who

⚫ The speaker wants the world to stop in recognition of the

⚫ Rhyme: there are several examples of rhyme

Hyperbole : (statements which

words beginning with

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