That Stop-the-World Feeling
If you are a movie fan, or maybe just a Hugh Grant fan, you probably saw the movie Four Weddings and a Funeral. A whimsical movie full of twists and turns and great dialogue has touching and outlandish moments throughout. But the mood becomes somber, touching and even heartbreaking when the poem, “Two Songs for Hedli Anderson†is read. Below is Part I of that poem.
Many of you may be able to strongly relate to this powerful work. The severity of the emotion, that “stop the world feeling†is what we have all felt at that initial moment and lingering moments thereafter when the news of a death in the family reaches us. It takes our breath away and all we can do is mourn, cry and remember how much they meant to us.
TWO SONGS FOR HEDLI ANDERSON
by W. H. Auden
I
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.