Imagery in the Poem Funeral Blues
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The poem Funeral Blues by W.H. Auden speaks of the loss of a loved one. The person of whom the speaker speaks of was a person who was a big part of the speakers life. Without that person, the speakers life would seize to exist. In the poem, the depiction of a suggested farewell of stateliness precedes a feeling of loss and despair. These feelings are a culmination of the clever use of poetic imagery which the speaker uses. The farewell of stateliness is suggested by the speakers call for silence so that people could mourn and pay respect to the one who has passed on. The following stanza places more emphasis on the stateliness rather than the farewell by using public images. The feelings of loss and despair in the second half of the poem are created by the imagery of the beloved being everything to the speaker and imagery of darkness and hopelessness.
The first stanza depicts a call for all life to stop. To be silent. To mourn. This depiction is created mainly by the extensive use of auditory imagery. By the speaker starting the poem by saying, “stop all the clocks” (line 1), one already gets the feeling through this image of a halt of daily routine. He is calling all people to stop what they are doing or cancel any appointments because nothing can be more important than mourning with the speaker over the loss of his beloved. The image of “silenc[ing] the pianos” (line 3) implies that the speaker wants silence and nothing should be heard but the sound of mourning. It shows that the speaker sees the mourning of his beloved more important than the sound of a piano which is customary at funerals. The speaker even implies that the silence is so important that everything necessary needs to be done to maintain it. By the speaker saying, “[pr]event the dog from barking with a juicy bone” (line 2) he indicates that an immediate measure of action be taken to maintain the silence, should it be disrupted. The image of “cut[ting] off the telephone” (line 1) is placed between these two portrayals of a halt of daily routine and silence. The speaker literally means he wants silence by having the telephone wires cut, but what he also means by that is that people should not engage in any dialogue other than to mourn.
The second stanza, much like the first stanza, portrays the important person the speakers beloved was to him. He wants everyone to see, to get the message that his beloved no longer lives. The speaker creates this portrayal by the use of visual imagery rather than auditory imagery. The enormity of the image of “aeroplanes overhead / [s]cribbling on the sky [h]e [i]s [d]ead” (lines 5 & 6) continues to imprint the importance of the speakers beloved. One could only think that this image would take place at the funeral of a President, The Queen of England, or a person who has largely changed the human race positively. The speakers use of this image allows the reader to vividly identify with