poetry texts, poem archive at plagiarist.com

Do you think that maybe it is a reference to self-love? I have not seen 4 Funerals and a Wedding nor had I read this poem before. Having read it- it seems to be a cynical look at himself.

This poem is just too depressing for me to really like it. That's probably because I generally like to read poems that uplift me because life is depressing enough as it is.

The speaker of this poem doesn't see much sense in the continuation of life after one special person has died. Not only does he/she want to act as if the world has come to an end; he/she wants everyone else to do the same. It seems to me that he/she just wants everyone and everything to die. That's not really a healthy way to act--I mean, death is a natural and unavoidable thing.

I think a poet should encourage others to come to terms with death rather than to take the view that "nothing now can ever come to any good." I personally think little good can come of the kind of fatalistic attitude that is expressed in this poem. I say, let the sun keep shining no matter how beloved are the dead. I say, let life go on.

i think that this is one of the most beautiful poems i have ever read, and i believe it is a poem about love and death and maybe he just wanted to put a little bit of himself in it i do not know if this poem is about his lover or not but it is indeed about love and loss it. So i am not trying to agree or disagree with anyone everyone is entilted to their own opinion, and what they think about the poem is their own chice and everyone shold just appreciated that peole have a right to believe in whatever they like.

I'd like to revise my earlier comment. (I'm fairly democratic, so I have a tendency to flip-flop.) If this poem is not poking fun at melodrama as was suggested, then it is probably about a temporary grief. One may be irrational in their grief and wish for everyone to die, but if this is not a lasting desire it probably isn't harmful, and even if it is, it's still of course a valid feeling. I think maybe this poem touches people mainly because it isn't rational.

This doesn't mean I love this poem now, but I think it's great that other people appreciate it, or any poem for that matter, for whatever reasons they have. Appreciation of art is a beautiful thing.

I believe that most people do not understand the true meaning of this poem. The common misconception is that Auden is speaking of lost love... but it is in truth something completely different. A little-known fact is that he wrote this during world war I, in which he was killed. Also, notice that whenever he states the other person, it is capitalized. I think that he means that God is dead. The reason for this is that, after witnessing the horrors of war, he realized that if there really was a loving god, He would not let this happen. Thus, God must be dead. That is also why he says.."For nothing now can ever come to any good"... because without God, all is lost.

Hi,
i was just wondering if someone could post their thoughts and feelings towards Funeral Blues. I have to write an analysis on the poem and im brutal at stuff like, if you could get back to me in like a day or 2 that would be much appreciated
Thanks

First of all this poem is titled XX, it represents a woman finding out that her husband just got killed in war. He meant everything to her and she feels like everything should stop while she mourns. She feels that now nothing is really meaningful anymore, it's not worth living without her everything.

Who can be surprised at the spontaneous visceral response to this extraordinary use of the English language?
Auden, a towering intellectual presence from the late 1920s until his sudden death in 1973 was both lyrical without being cloying, and tragi-comic. And he was a courteous and loved man it appears.
An earlier comment thet Auden died in WW1 is not correct.
A reading of a good biography (Carpenter, Davenport-Hines or Barclay all recommended) will reward anyone touched or challenged, or just downright impressed by this particular poem.
I enjoy Auden in lots of ways....his stuff is strong, human, amusing, ironic, intelligent and full of compassion and common sense.
You feel it could not have been put much better.

could be how to destroy a poem through certain "objective" ways of connecting the poet to his poems! I think that Auden's message is that he wanna get us to feel somthing. Instead of all this "let's know about the poet and we'll understand his poetry" - just read the poetry and feel!!!!!

I really don't care whether W.H. Auden was writing this during a war, as another person [a grieving wife], in memory of his gay lover, for himself, about God...

I think the real reason that it strikes us so powerfully is the use of simple, sometimes "clumsy" lines that remind us how strong grief can be. And overanalyzing it, scouring the page for similes, highlighting all the metaphors mentally... I think that, of all things, is "missing the point."