Four Weddings and a Funeral: After the Funeral / Funeral Blues

Perhaps you will forgive me if I turn from my own feelings to the words of another splendid bugger, W.H. Auden. This is actually what I want to say:



Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone

Prevent the dog from barking with the juicy bone

Silence the pianos and, with muffled drum

Bring out the coffin. Let the mourners come



Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead

Scribbling in the sky the message: “He is dead!”

Put crepe bows around 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 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 come to any good