WHAT WILL YOUR VERSE BE?

       In the poem "Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone" by W. H. Auden, it is crystal clear the tone and themes used to describe the deeply grieving narrator. Tone is a literary device which embraces the central theme and will inevitably imply mood into the audience. Because poetry really is just profound self-expression, tone is setup to almost accompany our themes, just as we see in everyday life. Just think for a second a traumatic day in your life! Was there no mental tone to assist the subject of the matter, subject being theme? Tone may consist of several emotions such as intimate, guilty, solemn, playful, serious, ironic or desolate. The list is endless and that it should be considering all the different emotions we enjoy, take for granted or suffer on a daily basis.

   W.H. Auden sets an extremely gloomy tone in "stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone." The central theme is very obvious due to the tone that is set. Perhaps if this wasn’t written with such grieving sorrow, people could try and overlook the main ideas and look for some sort of hidden message. "Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone," imagine a moment in your life, if one ever existed, when you wished for such a cut off from the real world. Stop time, and leave me alone. Solitude is a last minute resort when you are so lost in your tracks that you just cannot figure out where to take your next step. "Silence the pianos and with muffled drum," why is it on our darkest days, we listen to the saddest songs? How traumatic must such a thing be to want to silence the delighting music from a piano, and replace it with such an empty sound?

   "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." This last stanza personally defeated me. Besides the message the artist is portraying, to do such impossible things showed me struggle, and confusion. But from my stand point, the stars, moon, sun, ocean and wood represent a much deeper darkness. My father brought me up observing the night skies, exploring the infinite sky with a telescope we built. Discovering the moon at such magnitude one tiny crater was all we could see through the telescope. He would take me to the beach and we would collect drift wood, some would think to be old and abandoned, garbage at its best. We would bring it home and make art and decorations out of it. Now I dread the night sky every night I see it full of stars, I lose a part of me every time I see the moon that used to glow so vibrantly and remind me of times I can’t even fathom where they went. The author might be sounding insane in this last stanza, but I understand entirely what he wishes for.

   The theme is setup properly by Auden; however it would be cruel to suggest only one theme as the author is spilling his life on the paper for us. Betrayal, love, fear, suffering, all these are concrete themes demonstrated by the author. Betrayal of losing such a significant person and the fear it brings now being able to comprehend life that "for nothing now can ever come to any good." What type of life are you living with the thought of never being able to enjoy a magnificent moment or feeling. "I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong." Besides the loss of love, the author is illustrating his love for the departed. You cannot behind to write such intense words indicating such torture and strain is this person you write about is not someone you hold so dearly in your heart. Finally suffering is just defined by this interpretation to the poem. From my words, to the words of Auden, this piece of literature is just the product of a helpless soul attempting to succumb such inevitable, yet terrifying circumstance.