Funeral Blues [Stop all the clocks]

Poem

Funeral Blues

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


-- W.H. Auden--

Original version of the poem, from the play: The Ascent of F6, 1936.

Stop All The Clocks

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.

Hold up your umbrellas to keep off the rain
From Doctor Williams while he opens a vein;
Life, he pronounces, it is finally extinct.
Sergeant, arrest that man who said he winked!

Shawcross will say a few words sad and kind
To the weeping crowds about the Master-Mind,
While Lamp with a powerful microscope
Searches their faces for a sign of hope.

And Gunn, of course, will drive the motor-hearse:
None could drive it better, most will drive it worse.
He'll open up the throttle to its fullest power
And drive him to the grave at ninety miles an hour.

--W.H. Auden--

Funeral Blues from Four Weddings and a Funeral

About

“Funeral Blues” is one of W.H. Auden’s most famous and widely-read poems. It was first published in 1936 for a play, and is known for its emotive and powerful descriptions of grief and mourning. The poem is written in the form of a lament, and it is often used at funerals and memorial services.

The first version was published in 1936 for the play “The Ascent of F6”, written by Auden and Christopher Isherwood, and was known by its first line, “Stop the clocks”. It was subsequently rewritten with just the first two stanzas of the original, and two more stanzas added.

The rewrite made the poem a stand-alone, without references to aspects of the play. This version was first published in 1938 as “Funeral Blues” for the composer Benjamin Britten who set it to music for the work “Four Cabaret Songs for Miss Hedili Anderson”. It was also included in the 1938 anthology “Poems of To-Day, Third Series” by the English Association, and in “The Year’s Poetry, 1938” complied by Denys Kilham Roberts and Geoffrey Grigson.

The poem experienced a resurgence in popularity after being read in its entirety in the 1994 movie Four Weddings and a Funeral, staring Hugh Grant. The poem is read by Matthew, a character played by actor John Hannah, at the funeral of his partner Gareth.

The poem also features on a memorial for the Heysel Stadium disaster, when a wall collapsed killing 39 people on 29 May 1985 at the European Cup football final of Liverpool vs Juventus.

Funeral Blues was read at the funeral for police officer Keith Palmer, who was killed in the 2017 Westminster attack.

Author

Wystan Hugh Auden (February 21, 1907 – September 29, 1973) was an English-American poet, known for his wit, irony, and social commentary. He was born in York, England and studied at Oxford University.

He began publishing poetry in the 1920s, and quickly established himself as a leading voice in the literary world. In 1939, he moved to the United States, where he became an American citizen in 1946. He taught at various universities throughout his career, including Princeton and Oxford.

Auden’s poetry is known for its technical skill and its engagement with political and social issues. He won the Pulitzer Prize for his collection “The Age of Anxiety” in 1948 and received several other honors throughout his career. He died in Vienna, Austria in 1973.