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Auden, W H - Funeral Blues
Identifier
000382
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
The link is to a youtube video where the poem is recited during four weddings and a funeral
A description of the experience
Selected Poems of W.H. Auden - 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 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.
The source of the experience
Auden, W HConcepts, symbols and science items
Concepts
Symbols
Science Items
Activities and commonsteps
Activities
Overloads
Unrequited loveSuppressions
Communing with natureLOVE
Love with visualisation
Reducing threats
Squash the big I am