Old Things Are New Again

I discovered recently that a number of films I like (notably Notting Hill and Wimbledon) are produced by a company called Working Title Films.  They also produced Four Weddings and a Funeral.  I watched the movie back when it came out and was horribly disappointed.  But the movie was playing on TV and I like dark chocolate and bleu cheese, which I didn't as a child so, why not?

I watched the movie and was still horribly disappointed (well, maybe only disappointed) but there were moments of brilliance that I failed to appreciate as a youth.

My favorite was at the one funeral in the movie.  Matthew, Gareth's partner, mourns the loss of his love and recites the most perfect poem about grief and loss.  He had me at the first sentence as I remember feeling that exact feeling at the loss of my mother.

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.

So while the movie was a waste of two hours, for the second time, the poem was well worth it.  I can now express verbally what's in my heart when I have my moments of grief and needing words I don't have for an emotion I can't wish away.

Coincidentally, in one of those great circle of life moments, the poem is by W.H. Auden, my senior year roommate's favorite poet.  I should have known she was on to something; she was a brilliant woman who took seriously the proper use of adverbs, knew a great deal about diamonds and could make an amazing gorgonzola cream sauce.