TheBanyanTree: From: "Sharon Mack" (retrieved bounce)

[Sachet]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Sharon Mack" <smack58 at nycap.rr.com>
To: <thebanyantree-bounces at lists.remsset.com>
Date: Sat, 23 May 2009 16:38:55 -0400
Subject: Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone

This poem so touched my heart when I heard it recited in Four Weddings & 
A Funeral.  At the time I couldn’t understand the author’s name due to 
the actor’s Scottish Brogue, so I was able to find it with some of the 
words I remembered from the recitation.  I think it describes 
beautifully how one feels after devastating loss.  I would like to share 
it with you all.

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone

W. H. Auden


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 crepe 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.