Funeral Blues

By W. H. Auden

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 the airplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message "He is dead".

Put great bows around the white necks of the public doves.
Let 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.