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Funeral Blues or Stop All The Clocks is an elegy about the narrator expressing their loss as they attend their lover's funeral and how everything good in the world has been lost. It was written by Wystan Hugh Auden (1907-1973). He was an educated man, who had degrees in medicine, psychology, classical studies and archaeology. After completing his medical degree he became a lecturer at Birmingham University.

Auden was happily married to Constance Rosalie but he was known to have an intimate relationship with his close friend Christopher Isherwood as well as a long lasting relationship with Stephen Spender.

In regards to his professional life, he worked with many different people throughout his career which included T.S. Eliot and Wordsworth. In fact, Wordsworth was Auden's 'first poetic mentor'. It seems as though he was recognised by getting the right contacts who could help him publish his work in the right market. He also graduated from Oxford University gaining a third class.

Auden’s first collection was first published through T.S Eliot and he was established by critics as one of the leading poets of his generation. He had undertaken many professions during his life to make money. The poem discussed here became well known after having it recited in the film Four Weddings and a Funeral.

The nature of the relationship between the mourner and the dead is not explicitly stated but a romantic relationship. However since the poem only has the narrator’s perspective this relationship could be interpreted as one-sided, with the narrator being in love with the subject to an intense degree that was not returned. But a mutual relationship is more likely.

The subject of the poem is clearly male but the gender of the narrator remains undetermined. The common assumption is that it is a woman but there is evidence that suggests it could be a man. One example is that this poem was featured in the film Four Weddings and a Funeral and was narrated by Matthew at the funeral of his deceased partner, Gareth. Auden himself is also male and a homosexual which, while not conclusive because the contents of the poem do not necessarily reflect on the poet, does make it seem likely that he would use a gay narrator.

The rhyme scheme is ‘aabbccddeeffgghh’, with each stanza containing two rhyming couplets. The rhyming couplets used throughout the poem have a certain irony in the existence of ‘couple’. We have the contrast between the layout of the poem and the narrator since the poem is written in couplets, whilst the narrator has been deprived of their partner, thus becoming singular instead of a couple. The four stanzas could be interpreted as the first four stage of the seven stages of grief; shock and denial, pain and guilt, anger and bargaining and depression, reflection and loneliness. Notably, it would be the next three stages that involve adjusting to the loss and moving on but this poem (and the narrator) never reaches that stage.

The first stanza is talking about the impact of this person was so important to the narrator that the entire world should stop and mourn for this single person who has died. To the narrator this person made up their world so everything should be focus on him, and the third stanza is devoted to telling how the subject was an integral aspect of every part of their life. It is as if the narrator’s world has come to an end and so the rest of the world should have ended with it. The narrator cannot see any beauty in the world anymore. Everything unrelated to funeral should be silence and everything beautiful (the sun, stars, moon, ocean and forests) should be swept away like unwanted mementos of their time together being hidden out of sight. The narrator has been deprived so everyone else should be.

The production of Four Weddings and a Funeral, a British film released in 1994^[1] brought Auden’s work to its arrival as a recognised poet through his ability to convey emotion effortlessly. Auden’s work became well known after its feature during the funeral when Gareth (played by Simon Callow) delivered funeral blues as a eulogy to his lover Matthew (played by John Hannah).

Interestingly, Auden’s work was originally written as a satirical piece for the drama The Ascent of F6^[2] in 1936 and was fundamentally passed as a cabaret song. Nonetheless, it did not restrict the interpretations of the text which later lead to it being revised and creating a way for new elements to be added. Furthermore, Funeral Blues originally consisted of five verses, thereafter the last three verses were dropped and in addition two new verses were added finalising the poem at four verses which in effect made the motion picture nationally renowned.

Ultimately the poem was delivered in a Scottish accent by actor John Hannah and for audiences this was essentially how it was remembered. On the other hand, the text has been recited numerous times and posted online by hundreds of individuals from across the globe in relation to a personal story or life event. And after the performance it was destined for, the melancholy and beautiful heartfelt emotion that touched audiences, readers and listeners brought a sudden but well-deserved demand for Auden’s work.

David Gritten, W. H. Auden's Star Rises With 'Weddings' : Britain is quite taken with one of its own exports and the dead poet's society gets a little bit bigger”, http://articles.latimes.com/1994-06-26/entertainment/ca-8725_1_dead-poet. Accessed 24/01/14

Mendelson, Edward. “Auden, Wystan Hugh (1907–1973).” Edward MendelsonOxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. Jan. 2011. 24 Jan. 2014 <http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/30775>.

Self, Cameron. “Poets Grave”. http://www.poetsgraves.co.uk/auden.htm. Accessed 24/01/2014

Smith, Stan, The Cambridge Companion to W. H. Auden: Cambridge Companions to Literature Cambridge University Press 2004)