Poem For The Day

W.H. Auden

Even those for whom Wystan Hugh Auden is not a name which trips off the tongue easily will know the poem read by John Hannah in the film

"Four Weddings And A Funeral", with Andie MacDowell and Hugh Grant.

W.H. Auden died September 29th, l973 in Vienna

According to James Fenton, the first two stanzas were used initially in Auden and Isherwood's play 'The Ascent of F6', as a pastiche blues satirising the love of a population for a political leader. The sky-writing planes were for a dead Franco or Mussolini, not for a lover. In 1936, however, whilst working with Benjamin Britten, Auden decided to use these two verses as the start of this love song.

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 the crepe bows on 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.