You must have a heart of stone if you did not feel his pain. What a great performance.

Sometimes I envy people who can write beautiful stuff like that. I wonder what it's like to be able to move an audience with words.

the stanza ‘he was my north my south my east and west’ really really gets me every time. the way he holds it together until he says ‘i was wrong’, absolutely devastating

Felt that way when my mother passed. The deaths of some people do block out the sun, and you want the world to be respectful and just stop turning for a while.

the way his voice cracks we he says "I was wrong" broke my heart

I listen to this everyday since we lost our daughter. Thank you W H Auden and to John Hannah for his reading.

"He was my North, my South, my East and West My working week and sunday rest " This part kills me 🥺🥺🥺

Lost my wife to cancer 10 years ago and I asked her cousin if she would recite this poem at the funeral before she started she apologised to everyone there for not being able to sound like John Hannah but it sounded absolutely wonderful so thank you for that Patricia,hope you’ll still be around to do it for mine. R I P my dearest love xxx.

"My working week and my sunday rest..." I understand perfectly this pain... W.H.Auden is perfect...

Honestly, the part in this scene that finally makes me tear up is actually the way Gareth's father looks at 1:50 It's just the disbelief in his eyes that gets me more than anything else.

This is one of my favourite poems and he reads it beautifully in this scene.

John Hanna is a highly underrated actor and this is a such a good reading of such a simple and poignant poem.

I got teary-eyed when I first saw this in the theater, Years later when I saw it again, shortly after my husband passed, I bawled for a solid hour. I still can't watch this scene without having a bit of a cry

Amazing delivery and such skilful understated acting. John Hannah's emotional and raw eulogy using the words of W H Auden was for me the undoubted best part of the film.

always makes me cry, I wish someone would love me like this

I listen to this reading every morning since the passing of our daughter.

How the clueless Academy could watch this performance and not nominate John Hannah for Best Supporting Actor of 1994 is beyond me!

124 people fell over sobbing & accidentally hit the Thumbs Down button because this reading is the best that exists - what a devastatingly wrenching poem rendered to perfection by this wildly talented actor John Hannah, *WOW* where's my Kleenex???!!!

My dad died I said this poem yesterday at his funeral .

When he says, "I was wrong.", I lose it. Auden truly gets to the heart of what grief is. And DIRGE WITHOUT MUSIC by Edna St. Vincent Millay comes close, as well, to masterfully understanding. "I know, but I do not approve."

One of the most perfect pieces of rhyme ever penned. So descriptive and vivid, so moving and utterly heartbreaking.

I’m French and I lost my love in horrible circumstances this Sunday. I’m going to say this poem (the French translation of course) because that’s really what I feel about her. I’m not an actor but I hope that I will be able to deliver it without crying in pain. I hope that she will hear it. My pain is excruciating. And for nothing now can ever come to any good.

“often the true immensity of love is learned through realising the enormity of its absence”

John Hannah Scottish accent added a more meaningful touch to these words. I love him😍😍

This speaks to a grief that it is sometimes hard to express. The beauty and simplicity of the words and their delivery are beyond moving. 🌷

The marvellous John Hannah - I've not seen him in much recently, but everything he touches is improved by the authenticity of his acting. I really enjoyed his pairing with Gwyneth Paltrow, in "Sliding Doors" :-)

I think of my beloved partner Josh when I see or hear this. It still breaks my heart after 7+ years. I love you and miss you Baby Boi

Weeping here...a widow for only 16 months...my heart is forever shattered.

It has been 5 days since I lost my husband of 23 years. I understand this on an atomic level. I disagree with the "nothing now can ever come to any good" part because we had a son and he's awesome. And my love for him will be forever, until the heat death of the universe. But the idea of putting out the stars, packing up the moon, and pouring away the ocean I understand. Everything feels so raw and empty. Everything hurts.

To anyone who is hurt because of their loss, it does get better. It takes time but it takes better. Chin up and let the time do its work.

Great poet who i could not appreciate in my teens. One of my favourite films. Moving clip. Thanks for posting. Grief is a terrible pain to carry around....like walking through mud whilst suffocating and being deaf to the words of other when gripped in the darkest hours. Men - cry for all they were worth and do not suppress the tears for they wash away the grief...

best reading ever

Kills me everytime. The poem alone is a masterpiece by John Hannah's interpretaiton, the context and the time this came out T_T

My Love has died. He is dead. He was my North and South, my East and West... R.I P My Darling... T. L. Din Ninabiil

This is by far the best version of this anywhere on here - thousands of times better than the 'BBC's Best Version', which is as dead as the guy in the box!

Every time I listen to this poem recited by an amazing John Hannah, I feel the same pain when I first watched the movie. Since then it has become my all time favourite piece. I'm yet to see another to deliver with such raw emotion. Beautiful. Sincere. Loving.

I am from Denmark and thus not a native English speaker. I used to watch this movie all the time when I was younger, and though I didn't completely understand what was being said, this has always been my favourite part of the movie. It is so heart felt and the grief is so clear.

I had not been taught this poem, nor did I know much about Auden. But this scene so impacted and inspired me that I'll never forget the poem. I have read it several times at funerals. I need to find a vocal arrangement of it because I'd love to sing it someday. When a loved one dies,I always think of this poem ❤❤

my most favourite poem ever

I am glad there at least a few who agree here. "let traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves." well said.

We are having this beautiful poem read at my father's funeral on Thursday. It sums up every emotion and word we need to say xx

How breathtaking is this poem!! ❤

No one will ever do it better, neither poet or actor 😢

I can’t get through this scene without sobbing, I never could. It’s wrong and completely unfair that the priest introduced him as “Gareth’s closest friend”. He was, all but legally (another horrible injustice) Gareth’s husband! And he should have been acknowledged that way.

This beautiful poem is to my father who passed away the last day of 2018. Love forever ♥️

i read this poem time after time when my mother died. I loved her more then I could express in words, and this poem did.

I read this poem at my father’s funeral. It’s exactly what I wanted to say.

Most beautiful peace of the film

Man, WH could string serious words together

Ah - W H Auden. What a messenger. Quite brilliant - my favourite poet.

bawling like a baby, one more time.....

"Funeral Blues" is my favorite poem. W.H. Auden (1907-1973) is my favorite poet.

The most beautiful rendition I ever heard!

I cried so much during this it was so sad and beautiful 😢😢😢

best reading ever!

R.I.P Erik Nelson. I wish you were here today. I miss my friend so much 😢

when my mum died in 2017, the funeral directors gave me lots of potential poems to chose from and they were beautiful but there was only 1 poem, for me that really said from the core of my being what I needed to say. this poem, and from time to time ill listen to this clip because Matthew or John hannah reads it beautifully and the poem deserves that ♥️ ❤️ 🕯 💜 💗 🕯 ❤️ 🕯

I woke up this morning with this poem reverberating about my skull and realised it was 25 years since my dads funeral when I read this as his eulogy itv was the only thing that summed up my feelings, still does and I'm still crying my eyes out.

We studied this script in film class. And in that moment I realized how I honestly didn't like this movie, even though I grew up with it.then I watch this scene again, and I was simply speechless. Bless u john

As for me, you may ask how I will remember him. What I thought of him. Unfortunately, there I run out of words. Forgive me if I turn from my own feelings to the words of another splendid bugger, WH Auden. This is actually what I want to say: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.

I could totally see George saying this or a variation of this, at Fred's funeral.

“Stop all the clocks” popped into my head today with a Scottish accent, and I had to look it up. This was exactly the memory I was looking for.

Beautiful poem, beautiful performance.

A heartbreakibg poem!! So beautiful !!!

My English teacher showed this in class 7 years ago, can’t stop watching this since then

Best recitation of W H Auden’s funeral blues

what a lovely poem.💦 WH Auden is a great poet✊

Never manage to listen to this reading with a dry eye. Gets me every time.

I was christened in this church (St Clements) in 1952 and the funeral cortege left from my great aunts street in West Tnurrock (5th Avenue), so watching this film, with the moving elegy from the great John Hannah, is particularly poignant for me. Haven't lived in WT for 6 decades, but it still gives me a twinge when I see the little church, dwarfed by what used to be Hedleys ( Now Proctor and Gamble) . Funeral Blues is perfect for the raw pain felt over 'Gareths' premature death.

Comments line up here for 13 years. You can clearly see what it means that masterpieces last forever.

It can be amazingly comforting tô see your pain described as in this poem. By the time i watched the movie i had not yet Lost anyone that I loved. Watched It a few weeks Ago on TV and bursted into tears.

When my young brother passed, this sums it up never forget.

ABSOLUTELY lovely * so sad! Makes me think of special people I knew who are now gone!

RIP ODB, silence the piano and with muffled drum bring out the coffin

Exceptional poem

I came here because of the Tom Hiddleston reading of this poem. I remembered this one and is a million times better, because of the emotion he puts

Love will last forever John 3:16 🕊❤️

I'm so glad that I watched this movie for many reasons - an outstanding supporting cast and this beautiful and moving poem that touched me very deeply - Kristin Holden

I was just reading a magazine article about weepy films, and one of them was compared to the "stop all the clocks" FWAAF scene...so I came here. Now I'm crying in the bath.

A great delivery. Beautiful poetry.

Let me start by reading this poem I saw in the film, Four Weddings and a Funeral

for you dad and now our brother Dean rest well together untill we meet again

Great poem and great movie

Just lovely

Thanks this will be great for my English work

I came here because of another quote by Auden in another piece of culture, The Normal Heart. Larry Kramer died of pneumonia yesterday, and 100,000 others of this terrible pandemic. This scene echoes in my head through it all.

Reflections on the death of Katrina Dawson Published in The Courier on Friday, 19th December 2014 Those of us with soldier sons are accustomed to terrible news coming from the bad-lands of Middle East but former R & A Captain Sandy Dawson’s daughter died in a quiet café in Sydney. Katrina, a rising barrister and mother of three young children, was gunned down while shielding a pregnant friend and colleague from a crazed Islamist gunman who should have been in jail. I play golf with Sandy occasionally and he talks a lot about his two sons but it was clear that, as with many powerful men, the father-daughter bond was particularly intense. He will be utterly destroyed and such bleak anguish is best expressed in WH Auden’s poem: “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.” (Rev Dr John Cameron, St Andrews)

Absolutely beautiful

What a great piece of a great movie

I only got 19 years with you Mum, it’s just so desperately unfair. You were my North, my South, my East, my West.

Thank you. #RIPRobinWilliams

Gosh I forgot how's beautiful it's poem and this movie

A great actor!!

Beautiful

May God, what a poem for me this is a masterpiece.

OMG! The Scottish accent! I'm dead!😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍

This is my favourite poem and im just now learning it was in Four Weddings and a Funeral

Awesome Auden.

They stopped the filming of this for me twice. It was shot at St Clements Church, West Thurrock, on one of my regular running routes - they stopped so I cold run through, then stopped again half an hour later as I returned - it was only later when I saw the film that I realised what had been going on.

actually helped me with my english eassay as i had to write a essay about this poem helped me with how the person feels thanks