Musee des Beaux Arts

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.

Considering the title the intelligent reader is curious about the reason why the poet has decided to use the french language in a English-written poem and he supposes the poem to be about a tour into this famous museum in France.

Looking at the layout the reader can easily notice that the poem is arranged into two big stanzas written in free lines. So another question is “Why has the poet decided to adopt this structure to communicate his message?”

The reader can also notice that every line starts with the capital letter and the 4th line of the first stanza is longer than the others. So the reader is also curious about the reasons and the effects of this choice.

These questions are a sufficient reason to go on reading the text.

In the first line the poet puts the complement of argument at the beginning and this key position makes the reader focuses the attention on the main theme of the poet: suffering.

The poet explicit the subject only in the second line, making the reader curious abot the identity of these old Masters, expresssed with the capital letter, which suggests they are important people for the poet.

In this first lines there are lots of enjambements and commas, that  are used to explain what is said in the first line. Also the repetition of “How” during all the first stanza creates a kind of refrain and reminds to a list of situations.

In addition, the title and the use of the present progressive in the 4th line makes the reader undestand that the speaking voice started describing a painting and the mention of the “Miraculous birth” remind the raeder to the “Census of Bethlem”. The poet underlines different behaviours in front of the Jesus’ birth: indeed while the aged are reverently waiting, childeren are skating on a pond. So the reader realize that the poet uses this painting to support his idea, expressed in the first lines.

In the 9th line the poet refers to the Masters again and makes a reference to the Massacre of the Innocents: I understand this by the words “Dreadful martyrdom”and the prenece of dogs and horses, continuing doing their usual things, without caring about the rest of the word. The intelligent reader understands that the animals are a metaphor of humans, who are focused on their lives and ignore what’s happening around them.

In the second stanza the poet moves on to another paint: “The landscape with the fall of Icarus” by Breughel, and focuses on the beahviour of a ploghman, who may have heard the fall of Icarus but doesn’t give it importance and continues plowing the land. Also the sun doesn’t stop shining on the water, where a ship, which that has seen the fall of Icarus, doesn’t stop, because it has somewhere  to get to and sail calmly down.

So also in the stanza the poet uses differnt example to highlight the indifference of people in front of others’ pain.

In this poem the poet uses paintings to talk about an aspect that affects all humans : the lack of attention to the world around us, which is a world full of pain hidden by the noise of everyday life.