Nicholas (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} wzdd) wrote,@ 2008-10-24 15:25:00 |
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Meet the walking zombie of Year 10 English
The first time I heard W.H. Auden's "Funeral Blues", which begins
I thought it was pretty strange that Auden would make such a tasteless connection between dog bones and funerals. I had a post written out asking if this connection was as obvious to everyone else and whether they thought the poet knew about it BUT then Catie and I did some research and it turns out that the reason it sounds so strange is because the poem is actually a joke -- or at least the first part of it started off as one. The first two stanzas come from Auden's play "The Ascent of F6" and are apparently read as a satirical eulogy for a politician. This actually makes me feel a lot better about it, since the alternative was that it was just bad poetry.
So there you go.
The first time I heard W.H. Auden's "Funeral Blues", which begins
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.
I thought it was pretty strange that Auden would make such a tasteless connection between dog bones and funerals. I had a post written out asking if this connection was as obvious to everyone else and whether they thought the poet knew about it BUT then Catie and I did some research and it turns out that the reason it sounds so strange is because the poem is actually a joke -- or at least the first part of it started off as one. The first two stanzas come from Auden's play "The Ascent of F6" and are apparently read as a satirical eulogy for a politician. This actually makes me feel a lot better about it, since the alternative was that it was just bad poetry.
So there you go.
