Auden writes the poem, "Funeral Blues," in 1940 (802). In the poem, "Funeral Blues," Auden talks about the loss of a person's loved one and feels as if their life is over. The main theme of "Funeral Blues" is death. After the death of the speaker's loved one, he is full of grief, and depression. There isn't a happy ending in this poem, it's all about sadness, and death. Their loved one meant the world to them, and now that their loved one is gone, the speaker doesn't know how to go on with life without them. Auden talks about a person's grief and creates a very sad and depressing feeling. This is based on Auden's choice of words and sentence structure. He creates the depressing mood in the first stanza by using requests, as if he wanted the whole world to come to an end. The speaker expresses his feelings of grief: "Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone. Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone" (2). The speaker basically calls silence from everyone, he also wants the clocks to stop ticking, the phone to stop ringing, the dog to be quiet and every form of normal, everyday life to stop.
In the second stanza, the speaker doesn't just want quiet, he wants his loss to be known: "Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead. Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead" (6). He wants the life of his lover to be known as if he was a big and important man. In the third stanza the speaker starts to think back about how much the man who died meant to him. In lines 9-10, the speaker says, "He was my North, my South, my East and West. My working week and my Sunday rest" (10). And in this stanza he really explains the bond him and his lover had, and how much his lover really meant to him. In the third stanza, the last sentence reveals the worst part of human life, that everyone will die and that almost everyone will experience being separated from their loved one.
Wystan Hugh Auden was one of the greatest English poets of his time. He has written many great poems. This is partly because he believes and identifies with what he wrote. He wrote in the preface to The Collected Shorter Poems of W. H. Auden: Some poems which I wrote I have thrown out because t...
Auden - Epitaph on a Tyrant Wystan Hugh Auden, an English-born American writer, was one of the most important poets of the 20th century. ... Auden was born in York, the son of a physician. ... In 1945 he published The Collected Poetry of W. H. ... Auden expresses a similar opinion in his poem. ...
H. Auden's poem "[Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone]" is perhaps one of the best poems that describes a person's love for his or her spouse. ... Throughout the entire poem Auden uses imagery to express the pain and sorrow the narrator expresses upon losing a loved one. Auden takes common situations of little importance in everyday life and makes them noticeable in the face of death. ... The emotion of love, loss, and remorse throughout Auden's "[Stop all the ...
Refugee Blues is a poem written by W.H. Auden. ... Auden grew up in the United Kingdom and later became an American citizen. ... It is very ironic how humans should be more civilized than animals, but Auden presents the opposite. ... The style of the poem also emphasises the miserable life of refugees because the 'blues' is a sad genre of music that is very slow and steady. ...
In 1922 while still attending school, Auden began to question his religious faith, and shortly after Auden was introduced, by a friend, to the idea of writing poetry. ... Throughout "As I Walked Out One Evening," Auden uses the rhyme pattern of a, b, c, b, d, e, f, e, g, h, i, h This pattern allows the poem to flow and give the author the opportunity to emphasize certain words. Continually, Auden uses the metaphors and symbols in the poem. ... Many critics praise Auden's work in "As I Walked Out One Evening," and cite it as a classic piece of Auden's collection. ... The influence of...
Theme for the Unknown, Red Transportation While the four poems, "Public Transportation," "The Unknown Citizen," "The Red Wheelbarrow," and "Theme for English B" encompass a wide variety of styles, they all address a similar theme. Each poem involves the idea of appearances and, in most cases, th...
Dickinson and Auden use imagery to help the reader visualize the theme of death. ... Auden, on the other hand, uses imagery in a different way. Auden states, "Silence the pianos and with muffled drum bring out the coffin, let the mourners come" and "Put crepe bows around the white necks of the public doves, let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves" (Auden 3-4, 7-8). ... " Policemen do not attend funerals unless it is a military veteran or someone in the police force. ... Auden compares the loved one to cardinal directions; he does this to let the reader kno...
Views on Death Distinguishing a poets" rhetoric styles on death such as, "Death, Be Not Proud," by John Donne, shares his view on death as a transformation into eternal life. "Ozymandias," by Pearce Bysshe Shelly, uses his poem to describe what was once a powerful figure now has all been forgo...
