Musee des Beaux Arts By W. H. Auden

About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters; how well, they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.

In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may 
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on. 


Paraphrasing:
The wise men understood the way of man- that life goes on even when odd things happen. Everyday things continue, such as eating, opening a window, or going for a walk. The wise men waited for Christ to be born, an event that some dreaded. Children went skating, unaware of the importance of this event. When Christ was crucified, the wise men never forgot. Somewhere the crucifier’s horse still carried the murderer.

In a piece of art by Breughel, everyone is doing their own thing and doesn’t notice a boy, Icarus, falling from the sky. A farmer may have heard the boy’s cry for help, but for him it was not a significant event in comparison to his work. Icarus’ foot sinks unnoticed. There were some people out on the water, possibly close by, but none of them noticed Icarus either. Everyone was too wrapped up in their own life to take notice Icarus falling from the sky and drowning in the water.


Initial Reaction:
The poem “Musee des Beaux Arts” seems to be about how people begin to feel as their grow old and their lives come to an end. I saw it as a poem about the story of life and also the human condition. How people are so unaware of each other, that as the old die in one place the young are being born in another. As someone opens a window in one place, someone is eating our dully walking somewhere else. What is perplexing about the poem is its allusion to the painting Icarus by Breughel. The painting depicts a boy being drowned and crying for help. A farmer hears his cry and ignores it, seeing the boy’s struggles as unimportant. Then, out of nowhere, a ship appears to save the boy and he is saved and sails away. This part of the poem is slightly harder to understand, but seems to point to the the state of human life as well. 

SWIFTT:

W. H. Auden uses different literary devices in the poem “Musee des Beaux Arts.” The title itself, “Musee des beaux Arts,” is French for museum of fine arts, foreshadowing the usage of a painting in Auden’s poem. The first section of the poem is longer than the second. Auden uses language that has to do with children because they are absorbed in activities that distract them from what is going on around them. For example, instead of saying especially, Auden says “specially.” “Musee des Beaux Arts” refers to a piece of art to describe a boy falling from the sky. There is religious imagery in that Christ is born and crucified: “…when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting for the miraculous birth”. There is no figurative language in the poem. It's a more direct approach to writing. Auden’s tone in the poem is nonchalant and goes with the flow, like what happens in “Musee des Beaux Art.” The tone is also contemptuous towards the ignorance and selfishness of mankind. The main theme of the poem is universal apathy, a universal indifference to things going on in human life. Humans are indifferent to the happenings around them and other’s suffering.

Conclusion:

Upon analysis of the poem, I feel that Auden descriptively and eloquently expressed the idea that  that mankind is indifferent to their surroundings. When I first read the poem, my interpretation wasn't really correct. However, after deep reading and further analysis of the lines of the poem and their meanings my thoughts on the poem have changed. This poem by Auden expresses the universal indifference that humans have adopted, ignoring everything but things that directly concerning them.