funeral blues analysis

The poem first appeared in the 1936 play The Ascent of F6.Auden substantially rewrote the poem several years later as a cabaret song for the singer Hedli Anderson.Both versions were set to music by the composer Benjamin Britten.The second version was first published in 1938 and was titled "Funeral Blues" in Auden's 1940 … The person of whom the speaker speaks of was an individual who was a … You can read ‘Stop all the clocks’, which was first published in 1936, here. The word ‘dismantle’ verges on the flippant in the second line, as if the sun is a mechanical device that one can simply take apart, like a watch. She also says "Let the policemen wear black cotton gloves". "Pour away the ocean" could convey how she feels she is drowning in her grief, and pouring away the grief will allow her to carry on with her life. So far, so straightforward. The poem is divided into four stanzas. The speaker asks for quiet. JavaScript seem to be disabled in your browser. The first stanza shows a wish for silence, as she wants all the objects around her that make noise to stop. Also, it reflects the mourning that is going on around her because of his death. An unnamed speaker laments the death of someone close to him. 'Funeral Blues', also known as 'Stop all the Clocks', is perhaps now most famous for its recitation in the film Four Weddings and a Funeral, but its first audience encountered it as part of a play. He is the author of, among others, The Secret Library: A Book-Lovers’ Journey Through Curiosities of History and The Great War, The Waste Land and the Modernist Long Poem. This suggests that the speaker is talking about more than a friend, and is lamenting the loss of a lover: Auden himself was gay, of course, and the idea that the poem is an elegy by a male poet for a dead male lover is certainly how the poem was interpreted in Four Weddings and a Funeral, where John Hannah’s character recites the poem at the death of his lover, played by Simon Callow. Analysis of Funeral Blues by W. H. Auden. Seamus Perry discusses the poem and its place in The Ascent of F6, co-authored by W … Quick fast explanatory summary. Cite. By samira999 Oct 28, 2013 629 Words. You must have JavaScript enabled in your browser to utilize the functionality of this website. But this is faintly absurd. JC English ‘Funeral Blues’ by W.H. Poem shows the poet weighing up an average man 's life, in the end avoiding making a definitive judgement. Now that he is gone she has lost her way and her life is lacking direction. Funeral Blues Analysis. Curiously, ‘Stop All the Clocks’ began life as a piece of burlesque sending up blues lyrics of the 1930s: Auden originally wrote it for a play he was collaborating on with Christopher Isherwood, The Ascent of F6 (1936), which wasn’t entirely serious (although it was billed as a tragedy). Everyone deals and handles with funeral blues differently. W. H. Auden is considered one of the finest English or American poets and one of the best poets of the 20th century. These natural images are used to portray how she feels that the beauty in the world is no longer relevant, as she cannot enjoy these things on her own. In this form the last two stanzas were not included, and three others followed instead. Create one now! ‘ When fishes flew and forests walked ‘ or ‘ Horsed upon the sightless couriers of the air ‘ The narrator's loved one has died, and it feels as if their entire world has been destroyed. The issue that the poem deals with is that of somebody losing a loved one, and therefore, the aforementioned person feeling as … John G. Blair in The Poetic Art of W. H. Auden noted that “Auden … Being a gentleman in the 19th century would probably involve being polite and mild but it affected all. She has lost the ability to appreciate the world and this is portrayed in the final line "For nothing now can come to any good", which shows that her mood remains pessimistic and she has lost all her faith. He asks that the planes circle in the sky and, using the relatively recent phenomenon of skywriting (first used for advertising purposes by the Daily Mail in 1922, just over a decade before Auden wrote ‘Funeral Blues’), that the message ‘He Is Dead’ be scribbled across the sky. 'Blue' is the colour thought of as gloomy and depressive which reflects in the text and gives the piece a gloomy mood. You need to understand that not all people grieve and mourn in the same way. He is an exemplar of modernism along with T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound, but his later poetry differs vastly from his earlier work; critics often speak of early, middle, and late stages in his career. Enter your email address to subscribe to this site and receive notifications of new posts by email. I would like to focus solely on social aspects by which I mean the theme of love, determination and the status of gentleman. ※ 위 동영상과 음원은 영화 <네 번의 결혼식과 한 번의 장례식>(Four Weddings And A Funeral, 1994) 에서 W. H. Auden의 시 「Funeral Blues」가 낭송되는 부분을 발췌한 것입니다. Auden Characters archetypes. 20th century poet W.H Auden’s 1936 poem, “Funeral Blues” focuses on themes of dependence, death, and grief. The first two stanzas see the speaker of the poem, who is mourning the loss of a close friend (or, indeed, a lover), making a series of requests or commands. "Funeral Blues" isn't too hard to understand, and you've got the title to clue you in on what's going down: someone has died, and the speaker is devastated. Sign up to view the whole essay and download the PDF for anytime access on your computer, tablet or smartphone. She feels that her situation will not improve in the future and she has nothing to live for or look forward to. This introduction makes it clear that the narrator is depressed and a tragic event has taken place. The crepe bows he wants to put round the necks of the public doves (what are ‘public doves’, by the way – does he mean pigeons?) A critical reading of Auden’s ‘Funeral Blues’ by Dr Oliver Tearle. "Funeral Blues" or "Stop all the clocks" is a poem by W. H. Auden. 943 Words4 Pages. Analysis Of Poem At Thirty Nine 1906 Words | 8 Pages. W. H. Auden’s poem ‘Stop all the clocks’ – poem number IX in his Twelve Songs, and also sometimes known as ‘Funeral Blues’ – is a poem so famous and universally understood that perhaps it is unnecessary to offer much in the way of textual analysis. The first half of the sentence portrays her wish for time to stand still and her unwillingness to carry on with her life. Analysis of Auden’s “Funeral Blues”. Search for your essay title... International Baccalaureate World Literature. This shows that he was someone who provided guidance and support. The first half of the sentence portrays her wish for time to stand still and her unwillingness to carry on with her life. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. Don't have an account yet? The poem was then included in Audens poetry collection of 1936 (sometimes under the book title Look, Stranger!, which Au… ...read more. This is, to say the least, unlikely to happen. This poem incorporates a series of figurative language, metaphorical features and powerful imagery to describe the writer's feeling about losing his loved one. There have been multiple titles for this work, since Auden reprinted it under various titles, which was not uncommon for him-“Funeral Blues”, “Clocks and Lovers” and “Stop All the A brief summary of ‘Funeral Blues’ first. The second half of the sentence: "cut off the telephone" shows that she is unwilling to communicate. 'Refugee' tells us that the Jews had a choice to leave whereas in 'The Last Night' they didn't have this choice and wish they did. It could also show that she wants to isolate herself from the outside world and ignore the situation she is in as she cannot deal with it. All these issues are strongly related to each other. Tough GCSE topics broken down and explained by out team of expert teachers, Learn the art of brilliant essay writing with help from our teachers, Get your head around tough topics at A-level with our teacher written guides, Start writing remarkable essays with guidance from our expert teacher team, Understand the tough topics in IB with our teacher written Study Guides, Learn the art of brilliant essay writing from our experienced teachers, Struggling with an assignment? ‘Funeral Blues’: analysis But mentioning these poetic tropes has a dual purpose: as well as rejecting the usefulness of such romantic talk in the face of his grief, the speaker is also saying that the world – indeed, the entire universe – is of no worth if it does not have his lover in it. It strikes a rather dark tone in the audience as the poem attempts to convey the emotions and atmosphere surrounding a grim funeral of a person close to the narrator. Learn more. He wants to stop all clocks and telephones and to silence barking dogs and pianos. The themes of "Funeral Blues" are grief, love, death, mourning and unhappiness. Beethoven does it in his appasionata piano sonata. Funeral Blues is once more the poet mourning his partner 's death and wants the world to share his grief. In “Funeral Blues” by W.H. All Rights Reserved. The bows round the necks of the doves, and the black cotton gloves – black being associated with mourning – that he wants the traffic policemen to wear, are both excessive and unreasonable requests to make, but this is precisely the point. In the second stanza, the speaker’s requests become different, however. The requests the speaker makes are paving the way for the funeral, after all. It originally appeared as a song in a play Auden cowrote with Christopher Isherwood called The Ascent of F6. The content of the lines throughout the poem affirm it is, indeed, an elegy. The poem is an elegy as it is dedicated to a person that has expired. This poem is called a blues song. One’s personal grief dwarfs the concerns of the rest of the world, and it often becomes inconceivable that everyone else would not share in the feeling of loss and sorrow the individual feels. Auden What message do you think the poet is trying to convey in the first two stanzas of the poem? Post was not sent - check your email addresses! The poem ‘Funeral Blues’ is about a person’s partner passing away and consequently, their whole world is destroyed and becomes meaningless. Funeral Blues has an interesting composition history. In the third stanza, she describes how important his role in her life was. (The speaker's gender is never given, but we'll refer to "him" from now on for convenience.) Funeral Blues describes the death of Auden's lover as he conveys the pain of loss and the sense of disorientation and placelessness. They'll give your presentations a professional, memorable appearance - the kind of sophisticated look that today's audiences expect. Instead, let the muffled drumbeats – historically associated with funerals – accompany the coffin as it is brought out and the mourners at the funeral arrive. suggests that the speaker’s grief is overwhelming and that he wants the whole world to mourn with him. She is inconsolable and perhaps there are many people around her trying to comfort her but they are unsuccessful. The final version of the poem was first published in 1938 in the anthology The Year’s Poetry. In the third stanza, what can you say about the poet’s relationship to the person who has died? The poet’s intentions are made clear in the opening lines: Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, Prevent the dog from barking with a … Poem Analysis: Funeral Blues- W H AudenA comprehensive analysis of Auden's untraditional elegy, Funeral Blues. ...read more. Auden intended this poem to be a song lyric, but I think we all like it better as a poem. Would you judge it any differently as a lyric? Literature and the Public Good (The Literary Agenda), discussion of his classic poem about suffering and the fall of Icarus, The Secret Library: A Book-Lovers’ Journey Through Curiosities of History, The Great War, The Waste Land and the Modernist Long Poem. During a funeral and, more widely, a time of mourning, you might not want to be disturbed by the noise of the world around you, partly because you need time to grieve and partly because such sounds are a reminder that the world around you carries on. We take art too seriously, perhaps more than the artists themselves take their art. The poem ‘Funeral Blues’ is a lament for a friend. Image: W. H. Auden in 1939, by Carl Van Vechten, via Wikimedia Commons. In the poem “Funeral Blues,” W. H. Auden, a twenty century British author also known as Wystan Hugh Auden, describes how people can go through denial during the loss of a person so dear to them. Not too difficult. Auden the speaker devotes their thoughts to the idea that grief is a powerful feeling that is caused by losing someone they loved. 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—it just keeps plugging along on as if nothing has changed. Created by teachers, our study guides highlight the really important stuff you need to know. The last sentence of the stanza "I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong." GCSE resources with teacher and student feedback, AS and A Level resources with teacher and student feedback, International Baccalaureate resources with teacher and student feedback, University resources with teacher and student feedback. 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