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How Effectively Does the Poet Convey Aspects of Change in ‘Funeral Blues’?

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How effectively does the poet convey aspects of change in ‘Funeral Blues’?

‘Funeral Blues’ by W. H. Auden is a poem is about death and grief. It was originally written as a satirical poem about the death of a politician, though was later edited to become solemn. The poet effectively conveys aspects of change, such as the human condition in relation to the experience of loss. This is conveyed through tone, metaphors, imagery and anaphora.
The aspect of the human condition and our response to loss is expressed through the tone of the poem. The tone is an example of how of how a person would react and treat the world around when they lose someone. An imperative tone is created through the diction of verbs. In the first stanza, the…show more content…
This shows how much the narrator has lost as they have indicated that they have not relied on anyone or anything else. In the last stanza, the narrator orders that the ‘metaphysical’ be taken away. The verbal commands, such as ’dismantle’ and ‘sweep’, have negative connotations to them and therefore assert how redundant life now seems for the person.
Hyperbole and personification is used to indicate how difficult it can be to come to terms with loss and how alone one can feel. The hyperbolic orders in stanza four to take away the features of space and earth, such as ‘pack up the moon…’, which is impossible, is indicative that the narrator has not yet come to terms with the change. The absence of the objects producing light, such as ‘the stars…’, which are expressed through the visual imagery creates a sense of increasing darkness which is parallel to the absence and loneliness experienced by the narrator. The personification of the aeroplanes in stanza two is an aural declaration of how the narrator is feeling. ‘Moaning’ suggests the pain and agony of which the narrator is experiencing.
‘Funeral Blues’ by W.H. Auden effectively uses a range of techniques such as tone, imagery, metaphors and amphora to creatively express the feeling of loss inevitably experienced by humans due to change. The author also expresses a
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