Funeral Blues (”Stop all the clocks”)
W. H. Auden * Track #9 On Another Time
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Album Another Time
Funeral Blues ("Stop all the clocks") by W. H. Auden
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W. H. AudenAbout
There have been multiple names 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 Clocks”. It is the ninth of his “Twelve Songs” in the collection The Ascent of F6 published in 1936, then again in Anothe...
Funeral Blues (”Stop all the clocks”) Annotated
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 crêpe 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 for ever: 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.