MUSÉE DES BEAUX ARTS - TEXTUAL ANALYSIS 

Considering the title the reader wonders why it’s written in French although the poem is written in English.

It can be translated in English with “Museum of Fine Arts” and it may refer to a specific museum, it follows the semantic choice of the poet.

Furthermore, the reader might think that the poem is set in a museum.

Looking at the lay out, which is how the poem looks on the page, you can easily realize that it’s arranged in free verse, indeed there’s no regular pattern.

The poem is organized inot two stanzas of different length, the first one has fifteen lines whereas the second one has nine lines.

The first stanza can be divided in three further parts to ease the analysis.

The first part, which implies the first five lines, could be considered a kind of thesis of the economy of the text.

The speaking voice tells that “About suffering they were never wrong”, the subject personal pronoun “they” refers to “ The Old Masters” mentioned in the second line, indeed there’s a order deviation and the pronoun is positioned before the noun. Considering the title, “The Old Masters” can be referred to some artists, whose artworks are preserved in the Museum.

He expresses that they understood the human position about suffering, in other words humankind’s indifference to other human being’s pain and suffering.

The indifference is explained with a list of everyday actions, such as “eating”, “opening a window” or “walking dully along”. With the use of the adjective “dully”, the poet underlines the feeling of indifference.

The second part goes from the sixth line to the ninth line included, and it’s the first argumentation of the thesis.

The mention of the “miraculous birth” can call to mind a religious reference, indeed it might allude to Jesus’ birth.

Thus, the speaking voice is explaining how some “Children” were indifferent even to Jesus’ birth, or they didn’t want it to happen.

The third part goes from the tenth line to the end of the stanza and it’s the second argumentation.

In this part there’s another religious reference, indeed “martyrdom” usually refers to a Saint who sacrifices himself or herself for an higher purpose.

Furthermore the adjectives “dreadful” and “untidy” connote the pain and the opposition between “torturer” and “innocent” contributes to set the grim atmosphere.

Thus, the speaking voice is explaining how life goes on even when dreadful events are happening in “corners” of the world.

The second stanza is an example to explain the thesis of the poem.

As a proof the poet takes into consideration Breughel’s “Icarus”, preserved in the “Museum of Fine Arts” in Brussels. 

The example leads the reader back to the title.

The speaking voice enlarges the previous explanation about human position in front of suffering.

He tells about a plowman and a ship’s indifference to the fall of Icarus into the sea.

With the adverb “leisurely” the speaker sets a pacific atmosphere, which is interrupted by the onomatopoeic expression “splash”, that has the purpose to recreates the sound of the crash into the seawater.

In conclusion the poet conveys his consideration about the human position in front of suffering using some artworks  as argumentations.