The Mood in Funeral Blues by W.H. Auden Essay -- Poetry Analysis

The Mood in Funeral Blues by W.H. Auden The poem, "Funeral Blues", by W.H. Auden tells about a person's grief and is successful in creating a very sad and depressing mood. This is achieved by the poet's use of language, word choice and sentence structure. The way in which the author describes his feeling - along with the use of rhythm and rhyme - was created in a very effective way which made it clear to the reader. In the first stanza the depressing mood is created straight away by the poet's use of commands, which created the impression that he wanted the whole world to come to a stand still: "Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone" These particular commands are demanding silence from everyone as he is requesting silence from everyone as he wants the clocks to stop ticking, the phone to stop ringing, the dog to be quiet and basically every aspect of normal, everyday life to come to a halt. By doing this the author has made it obvious that the person he has lost was his whole world and he feels as if the world cannot go on anymore without this person. W.H Auden also made effective use of rhythm and rhyme in order to create the atmosphere, which exists at a funeral: "à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦with muffled drum, Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come." By the use of the word 'muffled' I was given the impression of a foggy, depressing and cold day with the coffin being removed from the black hearse. I thought it to be effective when 'drum' was mentioned as normally it is at state funerals for very important people where drums are used. The impression I received was that it... ...der to swallow pills. This is then continued as the next line is telling of the complete despair that he feels and shows the lack of hope and happiness he possesses: "For nothing now can ever come to any good." The use of the word nothing also shows he does not see a future for himself anymore. As it is a short sentence and if you follow the rhythm intended it is a drowsy beat which again extends the overdose idea as it is him falling asleep and puts him out of his misery but at the same time the ending remains sad and does not give a happy ending. In conclusion, Funeral Blues by W.H Auden was successful in creating a very depressing mood that was full of despair and contained absolutely no hope. This was effective by the use of simple language, sentence structure and most importantly the use of rhythm and rhyme.