Musee Des Beaux Arts
Poetry
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W. H. Auden
Musee Des Beaux Arts Summary
Summary
Stanza 1 – Human Indifference to Suffering: The poem starts calmly. Auden says old painters knew life well. They saw that people suffer, yet others keep living. Someone may cry while others walk or eat. A child may play near someone’s pain. Even animals go on normally. The world does not stop for sorrow. Pain happens quietly beside daily life. This shows people often ignore others’ suffer...
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Musée des Beaux Arts Character
Characters
The Old Masters: These are not characters but painters like Bruegel and other Renaissance artists. Auden personifies them, saying, “About suffering they were never wrong.”
They represent human wisdom and artistic truth, showing how art understands life’s balance between pain and ordinary events.
Icarus: A mythological figure from Greek legend. He who flew too close to the sun and fel...
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Musée des Beaux Arts Key Info
Key Facts:
Writer: W. H. Auden (1907 – 1973)
Original Title: Musée des Beaux Arts (French for “Museum of Fine Arts”)
Written: December 1938 (during Auden’s visit to Brussels, Belgium)
First Published: 1939 in the journal New Writing, later in Another Time (1940)
Form: Free verse poem (no fixed rhyme or meter; two stanzas)
Genre: Modernist / Reflective poem
Tone: Calm, ironic, thoug...
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Musée des Beaux Arts Theme
Themes
Human Indifference to Suffering: The poem shows that people ignore others’ pain. Life continues even when tragedy happens. Auden says human nature easily forgets others’ suffering and stays busy with daily life.
Ordinary Life beside Tragedy: Auden contrasts suffering with normal life. While someone suffers, others keep working or playing. This shows the gap between individual pain and...
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Musée des Beaux Arts Literary Device
Figures of Speech
Imagery: Auden paints clear visual scenes. He describes children skimming, an old man waiting for death, and the calm sea near Icarus’s fall. These images come from paintings in the Brussels museum. It makes the poem feel real and vivid.
Allusion: The poem alludes to the Greek myth of Icarus, who fell into the sea after flying too close to the sun. This connects human art and myt...
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