W.H.

Auden’s Funeral Blues is a deeply emotional and poignant

poem about grief and loss. The speaker expresses an intense sense
of despair following the death of a loved one, and the poem is
structured as a gradual escalation of sorrow, culminating in the total
devastation and hopelessness that grief can bring. Auden
masterfully employs vivid imagery, rhythm, and symbolism to
convey the speaker’s overwhelming sadness and the feeling of the
world coming to an end.

Analysis of Stanza 1

“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.”

The poem opens with a series of commands, which reflect the

speaker’s desire to impose silence and stillness on the world. The
instructions to “stop all the clocks” and “cut off the telephone”
suggest that time has lost its significance for the speaker, as the
death of the loved one has disrupted the normal flow of life. The
speaker wants to freeze time, as if the world should pause to
acknowledge this profound loss.

The desire to prevent everyday sounds—like the dog barking or the

piano playing—suggests that the speaker cannot bear any
distraction or normalcy in the face of their overwhelming grief. The
sound of the “muffled drum” is traditionally associated with funerals,
marking the solemnity of the occasion. The command to “bring out
the coffin” marks the transition from private grief to public
mourning, signaling that the loss is not just personal, but something
that demands recognition from the world.

Analysis of Stanza 2

“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.”

In this stanza, the speaker expands the scope of mourning to the

entire world. The image of aeroplanes “moaning overhead” and
“scribbling on the sky” emphasizes the speaker’s desire for the
loved one’s death to be publicly acknowledged on a grand scale.
This imagery conveys the immensity of the speaker’s grief—it is not
enough for close friends and family to mourn; the entire world must
participate in the mourning process.

The image of the public doves wearing “crepe bows” around their
necks and traffic policemen donning “black cotton gloves”
symbolizes the spread of grief into every corner of life, including
institutions and natural elements. The use of symbols like doves and
policemen, normally associated with order and peace, reflects the
speaker’s sense that the natural and societal orders have been
upended by the death.

Analysis of Stanza 3

“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.”

This stanza shifts to a more intimate and personal reflection on the

loss. The speaker describes the loved one as their “North, South,
East and West,” emphasizing how the deceased person provided
direction and meaning in the speaker’s life. The all-encompassing
nature of this relationship is reinforced by the phrases “my working
week and my Sunday rest” and “my noon, my midnight,” which
show that the deceased filled every part of the speaker’s existence,
both in the routine and in moments of rest or contemplation.

The final line of this stanza—“I thought that love would last forever: I
was wrong”—is particularly poignant. It reveals the speaker’s
disillusionment and the harsh realization that love, even the most
profound kind, cannot overcome the finality of death. The speaker
had placed so much faith in the idea of enduring love, only to be
confronted by the cruel truth of mortality. This line highlights the
emotional devastation of the speaker, who is now left adrift without
the anchor that the loved one provided.

Analysis of Stanza 4

“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 wood; / For nothing now can ever come to any
good.”

The final stanza represents the speaker’s absolute despair. The

commands to “put out” the stars, “pack up” the moon, and
“dismantle” the sun suggest a desire to erase all sources of light,
warmth, and natural beauty, as they no longer hold any meaning for
the speaker. The speaker’s grief is so profound that the very
elements of the cosmos—the stars, the moon, the sun—are seen as
irrelevant and unnecessary. In the face of death, even the
fundamental aspects of nature seem futile.

The closing line, “For nothing now can ever come to any good,”
encapsulates the speaker’s complete hopelessness. It suggests that
the death of the loved one has rendered life meaningless; there is
no future, no hope, no possibility of happiness or fulfillment. The
speaker’s entire worldview has collapsed under the weight of their
grief, leaving only desolation.

Themes

1. Grief and Loss: The poem is a powerful expression of

mourning, capturing the intense pain and sorrow that comes with
losing a loved one. The speaker’s grief is all-consuming, touching
every aspect of life and overwhelming any sense of normalcy or
hope.
2. The Finality of Death: The poem reflects on the
irreversibility of death. The loved one’s passing is portrayed as a
devastating event that not only ends a life but also destroys the
speaker’s sense of purpose and meaning. The realization that
“love would last forever” is shattered by death’s finality.
3. Public and Private Mourning: The speaker’s grief moves
from personal sorrow to a desire for public recognition of the loss.
The call for public mourning—seen in the desire for aeroplanes to
announce the death and for even public doves and traffic
policemen to wear symbols of grief—reflects the speaker’s feeling
that the world should stop and acknowledge their pain.
4. The Futility of Life without Love: The final stanza conveys
a sense of existential despair, as the speaker declares that
without their loved one, nothing in life has any value. The natural
world, once a source of beauty and meaning, is now dismissed as
irrelevant in the face of overwhelming loss.

Tone and Mood

The tone of Funeral Blues is somber and melancholic. The poem

begins with a sense of solemnity, as the speaker issues commands
to silence the world in respect for the deceased. As the poem
progresses, the tone deepens into profound sorrow and
hopelessness, culminating in the final stanza’s bleak declaration that
“nothing now can ever come to any good.” The mood is one of
intense grief and desolation, capturing the emotional devastation
that accompanies the loss of a loved one.

Use of Structure and Imagery

The poem is written in quatrains, with a regular rhyme scheme

(AABB), which gives it a formal, almost ritualistic quality. The
structured form contrasts with the chaotic emotions of grief,
reflecting how mourning often follows societal norms and
expectations even when it feels deeply personal.

Auden employs vivid imagery to convey the speaker’s emotions. The

idea of stopping clocks and silencing telephones captures the
speaker’s desire to freeze time, while the image of aeroplanes
“moaning” and “scribbling” the message of death in the sky
emphasizes the magnitude of the loss. The metaphorical dismantling
of the cosmos in the final stanza—the “moon” and “sun” being
packed away—represents the speaker’s sense that the world has
lost all meaning in the wake of the loved one’s death.

Conclusion

Funeral Blues is a powerful meditation on grief and loss, capturing

the overwhelming sorrow and devastation that comes with the
death of a loved one. Through vivid imagery, a formal structure, and
a tone of deep despair, Auden conveys the emotional depth of
mourning and the existential crisis that can follow in the wake of
such a profound loss. The speaker’s journey from personal sorrow to
public mourning, and finally to complete hopelessness, highlights
the devastating impact that death can have on those left behind.