The World at a Red Light

I liked poet W. H. Auden’s the poem “Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone” because of the way it presents the enitial grief that one feels at the loss of a loved one. When some people lose a loved one especially an imidiate family member one may feel like they just want everyone to just shut up and let them with it in their own way. I originally felt like the speaker was a mother or father who has lost a son. The line “Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves” made me think maybe the son may have died serving his country in a war (Auden l. 8). Although it could be that as with most parents the speaker just feels that their child is literally as the poem says “my North, my South, my East and West,” the devistation that losing someone that important would probably be very severe (Auden l. 9). As the speaker says with the last line “For nothing now can ever come to any good.” this is a very dramatic statement to say that nothing will ever be good again, the speaker has not only lost a loved one of some sort they have also lost hope. (Auden l. 16)