Analysis: "Funeral Blues"

W. H. Auden

The text "Funeral Blues" is a poem. The reader's expectation is to read about someone dead, his funeral and the sadness of the moment.

The poem is organized into four short quatrains, every one is made of four lines.

In the poem there are lots of imperative forms. It makes the reader aware of the solemnity of the moment.

In the first stanza you read about the preparations of a funeral in a house. The reader knows that it is placed inside a house because there are some elements like a dog, a telephone and a clock that make understand it. Silence and quietness are typical signs of respect for dead people.

The second quatrain talks about the time just before the funeral, but now the setting is outdoors. The reader understand there are airplanes, policemen and doves. You can understand that everyone has to know of the death.

In the third part you know that he who is talking loved the dead man and thought that he would last forever. He was a point of reference. The reader does not know who the speaker is and where he lives.

In the end it is as if the moon, the stars, the sun and everything else is unless, because the loved man is dead and that is the most important element at the moment. Nothing could make the speaker feel better. When you read the poem you can perceive how important the dead man was for the protagonist.