Meg+H

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.

 Paraphrase: This poem is a reflection of Auden’s feelings towards Breughel’s painting. The image reflects how even though Icarus is tragically floundering in the water below the plow, the plowman continues on with his job without pause. The world continues to function normally even through each tragedy that a person experiences. Babies continue to be born, people continue to age and learn, children continue to play and boats continue to sail through the ocean. http://voicethread.com/share/975900/
 * TPCASTT**
 * Title:** The translation of the title means “Museum of Fine Arts”. This is the first connection to the fact that the poem is based off of the painting "Fall of Icarus" by Breughel. The painting is housed in the Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels.
 * Connotation:** Auden uses the symbolism of Icarus’ fall from the sky to represent the daily tragedies that everyone goes through. Icarus’ father gave him wings that allowed him to fly in the sky, but he did not heed his father’s warning about flying too close to the sun. Icarus flew to close to the sun and the wax holding his wings to his body melted and he fell from the sky into the ocean below. Auden uses the image of Icarus floundering in the water to show the insignificance of a single tragedy, no matter how horrific the tragedy is.
 * Attitude:** The author uses common language and nonchalant tones to signify the unimportance of the tragedy within the painting.
 * Shift:** The one shift in the poem occurs between the ninth and tenth lines. The tone switches between a light hearted and cheerful language to a more morose and forsaken feeling. This shift adds a deeper level of intensity to the tragedy which the poem is talking about. The other shift in the poem occurs between the twelfth and the thirteenth lines. The dark language switches back to a more light hearted tone. This switch back to the original tone of the poem helps exemplify the insignificance of the torture that the protagonist goes through.
 * Title:** The title is about a painting that is in a Museum of Fine Arts and the reaction W.H. Auden had to seeing that painting
 * Theme:** The theme behind this poem is the idea that life continues even through tragedies. Even though Icarus is dying in the background of the painting, the rest of the world continues on and nothing stops just because someone is going through a tragedy.