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.

Dismantle the Sun is via Funeral Blues, which always ranking top of my favorite poem these years.


According to the poet, words like "sun"，as "moon" , "sea" and "forest" may only be used in context. And I want to highlight this verse separately because, in my opinion, the word "sun" implies "bright," "right," and "masculine" in the majority of contexts in civilized societies.



While the antonyms to many of these positive words, such as "chaotic" ,"ambiguous", "confused" and"disorderly" abound in our daily lives. "Dismantle the sun" is, in my opinion, a statement against chauvinism.