My Favorite Poerty Vol 1

I come across writings from time to time that I love - but I always have trouble rememebering which ones they are that I love when they're not in front of me. The following is Funeral Blues by W.H. Alden. If you've seen Four Weddings and a Funeral you will recognize it. I just rediscovered it while reading Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking. I think it is best if you imagine it as read in the voice of John Hannah (Matthew in the film).


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 crêpe 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 for ever: 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.