Unit 7  Section 2Exercise 4Writing our obituaries
David Wright “A funeral oration”
Composed at thirty, my funeral oration: Here lies
David John Murray Wright, 6’2”, myopic blue eyes;
Hair grey (very distinguished looking, so I am told);
Shabbily dressed as a rule; susceptible to cold;
Acquainted with what are known as the normal vices;
Perpetually short of cash; useless in a crisis;
Preferring cats, hated dogs; drank (when he could) too much;
Was deaf as a tombstone; and extremely hard to touch.
Academic achievements: B.A. Oxon 92 nd class);
Poetic: the publication of one volume of verse,
Which in his thirtieth year attained him no fame at all
Except among intractable poets, and a small
Lunatic fringe congregating in soho pubs.
He could roll himself cigarettes from discarded stubs,
Assume the first position of Yoga, sail, row, swim;
And though deaf, in church appear to be joining a hymn.
Often arrested for being without a permit,
Starved on his talents as much as he dined on his wit,
Born in a dominion to which he hoped not to go back
Since predisposed to imagine white possibly black:
His life, like his times, was appalling, his conduct odd;
He hoped to write one good line; died believing in God.
Study questions
- What is your response to this funeral oration? What is the conventional funeral oration and how is this different?
- Revisit the editorial summary of the ‘good death’ in unit 1. When we admire people who are dying, what characteristics of their behavior are we responding to? Is this writer’s imagined death admirable? If so, in what way(s).
- Revisit the Deathbed exercise in Unit 1. Write your own poetry or prose funeral oration. How might your attitude towards your own death affect how you respond to someone who is dying?
Additional reading: Link to the following page and read the posts that follow it. What difference does the date at the bottom of the poem make in reading it? Would it make a difference if the poet knew she were going to die, or if, as one of the posts states, her death was a freak event? http://www.dervala.net/archives/000721.html
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