musée des beaux arts

"Musee des Beaux Arts" by W.H.Auden

      The poem Musee Des Beaux Arts by W. H. Auden is a poem about human indifference it sets the tone for a serious mood right from the beginning with the line  " About suffering they were never wrong,The Old Masters : how well they understood It's  human position " that people  often turn a blind eye to one another's suffering ( Auden lines 1-3).It uses analysis of one art form (painting) by another (poetry) to make a statement about peoples lack of interest in the suffering of others. You have an event as miraculous as birth or as tragic in the painting of Icarus falling to his death.
     This poem is in two stanzas, the first stanza deals with real life how life goes on the elders waiting for the miraculous birth but the children did not want it to happen.  To some people birth is a miracle but they are waiting for a life miracle that will not happen.
     The second stanza deals with the painting and the death of Icarus,and the actual indifference of human beings. Auden states "the ploughman may Have heard the splash,forsaken cry,But for him it was not an important failure"(Auden lines 17-19). He didn't care he needed to plough his field so he just kept working.
    He continues in the second stanza how people in an expensive sailboat are on the water when Icarus fell into the sea head first it had to be a sight a boy falling out of the sky, but they had a destination to get to and did nothing to help and sailed right on by.
     From the start of the poem to the end it shows how people just go on their daily lives even with the miracle of a birth to a tragedy such as death if it doesn't involve them who cares.