Today we're going to focus on reading comprehension as well as understanding the structure of the poem. (I mean we're going to talk about what the poem MEANS, as well as the way it's built from a pattern of sounds.)
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 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, my 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.
by WH Auden
Now answer these questions using the P.E.E. skills we used when writing about short stories. (That means you need to use quotations as proof every time, remember.)
1) What is this poem about?
2) How does the narrator feel? How do you know they feel that way?
3) Why does the narrator want to give the dog a juicy bone?
4) Why does the narrator want to put crepe bows on the necks of public doves? And why do they want traffic policemen to wear black gloves?
5) Every 4-line stanza has the same rhyme scheme (or rhyme pattern). What is this pattern?
6) How did this poem make you feel?
7) What was the most powerful or moving line for you when you were reading it?
