Stop All The Clocks (Funeral Blues)

by W H Auden (1907-1973)

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.

The above poem was written in 1936. It became more widely known after it was recited in the 1994 movie, Four Weddings & A Funeral. If you have not watched this movie you should try to rent it and watch. I believe this is the only movie which the first line of dialogue begins with “F**K! F**K!” When it was screened in Singapore then, the audience could not hear those two words!