What is the tone of Funeral Blues?

The Mood in Funeral Blues by W.H. Auden The poem, “Funeral Blues”, by W.H. Auden tells about a person’s grief and is successful in creating a very sad and depressing mood. This is achieved by the poet’s use of language, word choice and sentence structure.

What techniques are used in Funeral Blues?

Within ‘Funeral Blues’ Auden makes use of several poetic techniques. These include caesura, anaphora, alliteration, enjambment and hyperbole.

What is WH Auden writing style?

Stylistically, the poems are fragmentary and terse, relying on concrete images and colloquial language to convey Auden’s political and psychological concerns. Auden’s poems from the second half of the 1930s evidence his many travels during this period of political turmoil.

How is Funeral Blues a modernist poem?

One point of evidence that W. H. Auden’s poem “Funeral Blues” fits the modernist genre concerns the fact that the poem satirizes the wailing laments of deceased loved ones so common in the Romantic era. The poem also appears to be satirizing the Romantic ideal that love is everything.

Is Funeral Blues an elegy?

“Funeral Blues” is best thought of as an elegy, given that it’s meant to memorialize someone who has died (or perhaps just disappeared from the speaker’s life). It has 16 lines, divided into four four-line stanzas, or quatrains.

What is the last line of Funeral Blues?

Lines 15-16 Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood; For nothing now can ever come to any good. In these final lines, the speaker continues his hyperbolic thinking and asks us to get rid of the ocean and the wood (by “wood,” he probably means the forests).

Are Funeral Blues satire?

In the play, the poem was satirical, which means that it was snarky, mocking, and overblown. And since Four Weddings and a Funeral, the poem has been taken really seriously as a dirge (a mourning song, usually sung at a funeral).

Who did Auden write Stop all the clocks for?

“Funeral Blues”, or “Stop all the clocks”, is a poem by W. H. Auden which 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.

Who is WH Auden talking about in Funeral Blues?

‘Funeral Blues’: summary The poem is divided into four stanzas. 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.

What was Funeral Blues written for?

It was written as a satiric poem of mourning for a political leader. In the play, the poem was put to music by the composer Benjamin Britten and read as a blues work.

What is the first line of Funeral Blues by Auden?

Auden’s poem “Funeral Blues” is better known by its first line, “Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,” and perhaps for good reason. As he did with many of his poems over the course of his career, Auden made several changes to the language of “Funeral Blues” as he prepared it for republication.

What is the structure of a funeral poem by Auden?

Auden structured the poem in four, four-line stanzas known as quatrains. These quatrains follow an AABB rhyming pattern, changing end sounds as the poet saw fit. It is an atypically somber poem and is, therefore, a popular reading at funerals. Most of the poem is delivered through an omniscient, anonymous narrator.

What are some famous poems by W H Auden?

Funeral Blues by W H Auden – Famous poems, famous poets. – All Poetry Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come. Scribbling on the sky the message ‘He is Dead’. Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves. I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong. For nothing now can ever come to any good. 68 Enjoyed it Keep going!

What is the tone of the poem Funeral Blues?

The title “Funeral Blues” sets the somber tone that Auden reinforces in the first stanza, where the speaker prepares for a funeral. The speaker uses an imperative voice throughout the poem. John G. Blair in The Poetic Art of W. H. Auden noted that “Auden frequently chooses the imperative to attract attention.”