What is the poem that starts Stop all the clocks?

What is the poem that starts Stop all the clocks?

Funeral Blues
‘Funeral Blues’, also known as ‘Stop all the Clocks’, is perhaps now most famous for its recitation in the film Four Weddings and a Funeral, but its first audience encountered it as part of a play. Seamus Perry discusses the poem and its place in The Ascent of F6, co-authored by W H Auden and Christopher Isherwood.

What is the poem Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone about?

‘Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone’, by W.H. Auden, appears to be a poem written from the perspective of someone mourning the loss of a lover who died. The poem calls for silence, but also an acknowledgement of a life lived. The poem artfully captures the themes of grief and loss.

Who wrote the poem Stop all the clocks?

W. H. Auden
Funeral Blues/Authors

Why does the speaker desire to Stop all the clocks in line 1?

Whoever he is, he sounds angry, and issues harsh commands. In the first line, he wants to stop the clocks and the telephone. These seem like physical representations of time and communication to us.

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.

Was W. H. Auden married?

Erika Mannm. 1935–1969
W. H. Auden/Spouse

What does let Aeroplanes circle moaning overhead mean?

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead. Scribbling on the sky the message He is Dead, Now things are getting really dramatic. As if stopping the clocks weren’t enough, the speaker would like an airplane to write “He is Dead” in skywriting to commemorate his grief.

Is Stop all the clocks a metaphor?

The speaker wants everything to stop and all noise to seize. This poem is dramatic and successfully uses literary devices to show how the speaker is feeling in their time of grief. W.H. Auden uses metaphors, personification, and overstatements to reveal the effects of overwhelming grief.

What is the last line of Funeral Blues?

W. H. Auden’s poem, “Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone” conveys the meaning of overwhelming grief, tragic loss, and an unrelenting pessimism best exemplified in the last lines, “For nothing now can ever come to any good.” The tone of the poem is that of a melancholy sadness enforced by the internal rhyme …

Why did Auden write Stop all the clocks?

Curiously, ‘Stop All the Clocks’ began life as a piece of burlesque sending up blues lyrics of the 1930s: Auden originally wrote it for a play he was collaborating on with Christopher Isherwood, The Ascent of F6 (1936), which wasn’t entirely serious (although it was billed as a tragedy).

Why would someone want to Stop all the clocks?

The speaker wants to stop “the clocks,” to turn off the “telephone”, to give the dog a “juicy bone” to keep it from barking, and to “silence the pianos.” Many of these requests are symbolic. The speaker is asking the rest of the world to mourn with the speaker, to acknowledge the magnitude of this loss.

Was W.H. Auden married?

What does stop all the clocks mean in the poem?

commanding the audience to do something which is not possible, “Stop all the clocks.” This reference to time could also be an allusion to the death and brevity of life which cause the author such agony. The verbs of the first three lines of the first stanza represent how the author wants to

What does stop all the clocks cut off the telephone mean?

W. H. Auden’s poem, “Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone” conveys the meaning of overwhelming grief, tragic loss, and an unrelenting pessimism best exemplified in the last lines, “For nothing now can ever come to any good.” The tone of the poem is that of a melancholy sadness

How is Grief presented in the poem Funeral Blues (Stop all the clocks)?

Grief, in the poem, is thus presented as something deeply isolating, an emotion that cuts off the people who grieve from the world around them. Get the entire guide to “Funeral Blues (Stop all the clocks)” as a printable PDF.

How many words are in “Funeral Blues (Stop all the clocks) ”?

Unlock all 320 words of this analysis of Caesura in “Funeral Blues (Stop all the clocks),” and get the poetic device analyses for every poem we cover. Plus so much more… Already a LitCharts A + member? Sign in!

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