My Grey World

Poems and any kind of literature are my first love.

Here’s one English poem I found. (I usually read Indonesian poems, with super rich vocabulary and grammar-breaking form)

Titled “Funeral Blues”, it’s more well-known as “Stop All the Clocks” due to its first line. It was written by W. H. Auden.

You can listen to my reading by clicking play below (flash player needed) while reading the text of the poem.
Enjoy..

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 forever: 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.

My first time ever reciting a poem in English (really!). It’s exciting. Hahaha.

In case you don’t like my rendition, here’s a popular version, read by John Hannah at the film “Four Weddings and a Funeral”