Rich Schafermeyer
Funeral Blues
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 forever: 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.
Time is a recurring theme in the poetry of W. H. Auden. In many of them, time is expressed using the symbol of clocks. Some elements from his poems I tried to incorporate into my piece:
All the clocks = many clocks
City = many towers and spires
Stop all the clocks = hands not moving
Gate in the rock = city
First thought was a city with towers and spires, each holding a clock – but the clocks would be small and subservient to the towers, making the city more important than the clocks. Making the clocks dominant by making them bigger and divorced from their supporting towers seems better to me. Varying their size symbolizes people’s lives – small clock for a child, larger clocks for adults. The towers/spires can appear in the upper background while the city gate appears in front.
His most famous poem, “Funeral Blues” was featured in the movie “Four Weddings and a Funeral”.