Funeral Blues: W.H. Auden

This 23-slide lesson explores W.H. Auden’s ‘Funeral Blues’.

The lesson begins with questions for students about the poem’s title and information about the poem’s history (including how it’s now so famous from ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral’).

Students then read the poem (a glossary of key terms is provided) and discuss their first impressions. The poem is summarised and explained generally before the lesson moves into detailed questions about the poem: its speaker, its tone, its language, its imagery, its ending, and its message. Notes are given about the poem’s key tensions, as well as form, structure and rhyme.

Key themes are listed, and there is a list of sophisticated vocabulary to allow students to conduct precise and high-level analysis. There is an image-based task for students to match pictures to the poem.

There are questions provided throughout, including comprehension and though-provoking questions at the end. An example of an essay question (particularly relevant to the Cambridge IGCSE) is also included.

PowerPoint is attached as a PDF and in its original format. The PDF is recommended if you wish to retain the fonts, layout, and design.