ANALYSIS - Musee des Beaux

Considering the title, the reader is curious to know why the title is written in French, however is easy to understand the English meaning of the title. The reader may expect the poem to be about a museum the writer has visited, but it will probably have a deeper meaning.

Taking the layout in consideration, the poem is written in free verse and has two stanzas. The first one is longer than the second one, so there will be explained more things. The rhyme scheme is not regular, but it’s present.

The first stanza begins with the consideration of death and suffer that had the old Masters: they were aware of their precarious condition, they were conscious about the nearness of death; however, the children not really care about that and keep do what they want, leaving all running its course. Children, indeed, keep skating on a pond near the wood, they keep having fun in front of the coming oldness.

In the second stanza, the poet compares what he said in the first stanza quoting a Breughel’s painting. The characters in the Landscape with the Fall of Icarus (the ploughman, the ship and Icarus) are compared to the content of the first stanza.

Doing some researches, the reader discovers the real meaning of the title, indeed the famous Breughel’s painting is located in the Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels.