Theme of Suffering in Musee des Beaux Arts by W.H. Auden

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A poem is a great way to express your feelings as well as get your point across. Each poet tells their story but sometimes it isn't so easy to figure out what it is trying to say. There are occasions where you have to break that poem into pieces and figure the story behind that selection. These individual pieces come together like a puzzle to teach you the lesson it intended to teach. The different pieces in the poem we read can give you a general idea of suffering, the idea that people undergo pain and distress. In the poem 'Musee des Beaux Arts' by W.H. Auden it is under that suffering occurs everywhere while not always seen, however, when seen everyone is apathetic.

Within the poem, Auden makes a reference to the Greek myth of Icarus. Icarus falls to his watery grave after flying to close to the sun. ?First the fisherman, shepard and the farmer are on the scene at the time of Icarus? fall, not as he and Daedalus simply soar overhead like gods?. (Ruby Mary K & Marie Rose Napierkowski: 154-155). This line tells us how three men saw them flying as if they were gods. ?? is that the ?failure? of Icarus is of little importance to these living and laboring, that, as a German proverb states, ?No plough is stopped for the sake of a dying man? (Ruby Mary K & Marie Rose Napierkowski: 154-155). As this quote describes the three men did not stop what they were doing to help Icarus who was dying. Two of the men did not see Icarus suffering so they went along with their lives, but the fisherman saw Icarus struggling as the water entered his lungs. The fisherman went along with his life and just let Icarus die. Later on in Auden?s poem he states that ??. The expensive delicate ship that must have seen something amazing, a boy falling out of t...

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...f the canvas? (Ruby Mary K & Marie Rose Napierkowski: 154-155). In this painting Jesus suffers as he drags the large cross to his execution. Besides for their own comfort there was a reason to kill Jesus. He endured pain and suffering throughout his whole journey. From all of the people in the painting you can see that there were people who witnessed his suffering, but they were withheld from helping by the torturer and ?the torturers horse?. Breughel painted ?human position? and ?how it takes place?. Each of his three paintings depicts W.H Auden?s idea of people and their relationship with suffering.

W.H Auden?s ?Musee des Beaux Arts? there are many allusions to others suffering. These examples all help to support the moral of his poem. Suffering is all around us, yet we still do nothing to stop it. This illustrates his point by showing ignorance in all people.

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