Dec 3, 2007

*PS: Today I was in his funeral.

Funeral Blues

- by W. H. Auden

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

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

This article is conflicting with the conclusion you made in the last article(the first sentence in it is "the death is nothing.").

If it is nothing, Why we have such a beautiful poem like Auden wrote?
Death is dis-existence in physical world, but what happens in human's spirit when their body disappears? It is a mistery to me until now.

Black Beauty

Jay said...

Ha ha... it's good point.
It's also mysterious to me.

Anonymous said...

Does the picture match the main theme of your essay? The pic looks quite cheerful. hehe

The third paragraph of the poem seems most appealling to me. I really like the rhythm,the pace and the images provoked by the set of parrallel words.

Jay said...

The poem is used at the movie, Four Weddings and a Funeral. By the way, who are you??;;

Jay said...

I like 3th paragraph as well. I, however, also like 4th paragraph. The feeling is different in English, maybe because my English is not so good. In Korean translation the 4th paragraph was more touching.

Anonymous said...

Yes , I agree with you. "Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the woods" are also the evidence of the genius and the vigour of the poet. Only a broad heart can imagin such a spectacular view!