Funeral Blues Summary

Funeral Blues Overview

“Funeral Blues” is a four-stanza elegiac poem with an AABB rhyme scheme by the British-American writer and poet W.H. Auden. The poem, first written as a hyperbolic satire of political power, went through substantial revisions before appearing in the form known today. As the “blues” in its title suggests, Auden rewrote it to be set to music. The poem represents the enormity of the speaker’s grief at the loss of a loved one, drawing from domestic and metaphysical images. With its tone of futility and defeat, Auden’s speaker is forced to come to terms with the transience of life and love.