"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.
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.
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.
First reactions
It's true, suffering happens, and somewhere it's happening right now. However, we do not let this intrude upon our lives, even if it occurs right in front of us. We see extraordinary events, but the grind of daily life means we can not take a pause to consider it, or perhaps do something about it. Icarus' death is juxtaposed with the daily life of a port city; it falls off to the wayside, unimportant in the scheme of things.
Paraphrase
Paraphrase
The old masters understand that suffering is human and that it occurs even when others are experiencing mundane events. The old and honored may be passionately waiting for a miraculous birth, but there are children who don't pay it much mind. The old masters never forget that the dread martyrdom had to occur. Anyway, there is a corner somewhere where a dog is living life as a dog and a torturer's hose is scratching its rear.
For example, in Brueghel's Icarus, everyone ignores the disaster; the ploughman doesn't deem it important, and the ship, which might call it extraordinary, sails on as it has somewhere to go.
SWIFTT
SW – Auden uses relatively simple word choice and sentence structure. The exception is in the second and third lines, the colon separating out two concepts that are central to the poem: understanding and humanity. He also uses words such as "doggy life" to drive home a rhetorical point.
I – The main image of the poem would be of the painting it is based on. The poem focuses specifically on Icarus' drowning. Other image would be the pond at the end of the world, emphasizing a sense of detachment.
F – One form of figurative language is the term "doggy life," which Auden uses to highlight its triviality in the midst of tragedy. Another example would be the "miraculous birth" and the "dreadful martyrdom," probably referring the Jesus' life and death.
T – The tone of the poem is very serious and, given its subject matter, is almost spiteful in describing the relative passiveness humanity has in regards to tragedy.
T – "Musee des Beaux Arts" focuses on the human acceptance of suffering in the midst of life. Extraordinary things happen, but our daily lives supersede them, and we give them no importance.
Conclusions
My conclusion is largely the same as my initial reaction. Auden uses events such as a dog living a doggy life and the horse scratching its rear on a tree to contrast against the fact that very real suffering happens at the same time, somewhere else in the world. It is humanity's role to accept and understand that suffering happens.
