NPM - Day 15

Funeral Blues

by W.H. Auden 

 

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, 

Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone, 

Silence the pianos and with muffled drum 

Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come. 

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead 

Scribbling on the sky the message He is Dead. 

Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves, 

Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves. 

He was my North, my South, my East and West, 

My working week and my Sunday rest, 

My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song; 

I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong. 

The stars are not wanted now; put out every one, 

Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun, 

Pour away the ocean and sweep up the woods; 

For nothing now can ever come to any good. 

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I love this poem.  A group in one of my college classes set it to music, and it was very moving.  Here is a link to a clip from the movie Four Weddings and a Funeral that uses the poem quite affectively.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_a-eXIoyYA