The Poem Musee des Beaux Arts tells one man’s emotional connection to paintings he views while visiting a famous museum. In this essay I will be breaking down W. H. Auden’s poem line by line with analysis of his differing poetic elements to portray his theme of human suffrage. The poem starts out stating “About suffering they were never wrong,/The Old Masters;” the phrasing is repetitive and the subject is placed at the end of the second line (Auden, 1&2). This is unusual and a typically frowned
Suffering is embedded in our daily lives. There are devastating things going on in our daily environments and yet, people seldom realize this as they occupy themselves with other tasks. W.H. Auden’s, Musée des Beaux Arts, is a statement on human perceptions and how we use them to observe, or block out human suffering. While we are doing ordinary things like eating, or opening a window, bad things can be happening to others and it is as easy as looking up, to see what is actually going on. Auden illustrates
usually indirect references to another work or to real or historical events or persons, traditionally as a way of connecting those elements as well as enriching the meaning of the current work through associations with the other. In his poem "Musee des Beaux Arts", W.H. Auden uses allusions as a way of drawing connections between his poem, Peter Brueghel's painting " The Fall of Icarus", the myth, and the humanity indifference toward one's suffering. Icarus, the subject of this poem, was a figure from
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
W.H. Auden's Musee des Beaux Arts and Pieter Bruegel's The Fall of Icarus W.H. Auden and Pieter Bruegel were both keen observers of the ordinary. In Bruegel’s painting “The Fall of Icarus”, he is able to look past the tragedy of the death of Icarus and focus on the simple scene surrounding the event. Auden’s poem, “Musee des Beaux Arts”, has the same qualities: it glazes over the nature of tragedy, and chooses to instead examine the fact that life goes on while disaster occurs. Arthur F. Kinney
Name Prof Subject Date An Analysis of W.H. Auden’s “Musee des Beaux Arts” Walking on one’s daily route to work one day you hear the sounds of a struggle nearby, craning one’s head over a fence you see a man getting mugged for his belongings. Would one call the police or go about one’s day? At work that day one notices that a coworker has been sobbing in the bathroom all day on and off. Does one try to talk to him, try and see what's bothering him, or does one decide that it's none of your business
Modern Life "Musee des Beaux Arts" is a poem written by W.H. Auden in December of 1938, while he was staying in Brussels Belgium. The poem ‘Musee des Beaux Arts’ means ‘Museum of Fine Arts’ in French, he composed this after he visited the museum in Paris. This poem may be hard to understand when you first read it, and has the feel of being much older than 77 years of age. Although, this poem is very complex it is still relative and can be applied to our current modern day life. Many issues and
s’est spécialisé en verticales des personnes, principalement danseurs de ballet. Degas n’etait pas simplement un impressionniste, parce qu’il est allé au delà de celui et est devenu un modèle pour l’avant-garde, aussi bien que pour Toulouse-Lautrec son palpeur, et Gaugin son admirateur. Les événements de la vie de Degas ne sont pas d’intérêt excessif ou romantique. Le 19 Juillet 1834 il était Hilaire Germaine nommé né Edgar de Gas à Paris. Il était le plus vieux de cinq enfants vivants. Degas embarqué
He began his artistic studies with Louis Lamothes, a pupil of Ingres. After studying there he moved on and started classes at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. In 1854, he left and went to Italy. For 5 years he stayed there and studied Italian art, mainly works. Edgar Degas was known as an Impressionist. The Impressionist were artist who exhibited their works of art in independent shows from 1874 to 1886. It was the common desire to make an open forum for artist to show their work that united the group
Point, Richardson graduated Harvard, class of 1859. After Henry Hobson Richardson graduated Harvard University, he decided to remain in the North to study rather than return to New Orleans. He had the opportunity to study in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, travel to London, travel through rural England, and through Southern France and Spain, making some trips with his friend Henry Adams. Richardson collected postcards throughout his trips that would eventually amount to over 3000 images. Later
John Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn” (1820) and W.H. Auden’s “Musée des Beaux Arts” (1940) demonstrate how using the rhetorical device of Ekphrasis in poetry helps to guide the reader to the central themes and messages of the poem. Both poems confront and explore the works of art differently: while Keats uses the rustic urn (in which scenes and myths are depicted upon it) to confront the nature as well as the limits of the world of art and fantasy; Auden uses Brueghel’s painting, The Fall of Icarus,
situation. Lena is a reflection Ying-Ying, which is why Ying-Ying knows that Lena will lose herself. Because of Ying-Ying’s similar mistakes, Ying-Ying can see the same harmful, dark road ahead and signs that Lena can’t see. Similarly, in “Musee des Beaux Art,” the speaker starts off by observing how “About suffering they were never wrong, / The Old Masters: how well they understood / Its human position”(Auden 1-3). While the circumstances aren’t the same for all Renaissance painters, famous painters
America. I feel that the Exposition displayed some of the more beautiful architecture of its time; its immense buildings and sculptures drew heavily from Greek and other classical styles, and it could possible be because of the sweeping popularity in Beaux Arts architecture. The Peristyle, one of the buildings that was constructed for the Fair, was designed by Charles B. Atwood. It was an ‘arcade of columns originally proposed by Augustus Saint Gaudens, the consultant on sculpture.” (Burg 79) The
Both the 1983 poem, “Musée des Beaux Arts” by Wystan Hugh Auden and the 1555 portrait, “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” by Pieter Bruegel, inflict the reminiscence of a parable conflicting human aspiration. Auden and Bruegel weave an interpretation of Greek mythology on Daedelus and reinforce its moral into human society and the effects of exposing dilemmas to humanity brimming with apathy. Through his artwork, Bruegel encompasses the ending of a myth and challenges the viewers to make personal
In two of Auden’s major works he uses the idea of absent-mindedness to express how humans can be self-centered, and tend to have a blind eye towards other peoples’ issues rather than their own. In “Musée des Beaux Arts”, Auden uses a painting by Pieter Brueghel called, Landscape with the Fall of Icarus as a setting for his poem, and uses the characters in the painting as proof that people can be very self-absorbed and unaware. Auden also portrays this same idea in his poem “Funeral Blues”, in which
Myths are explored and alluded to in all kinds of art forms. The tales of greek gods and heroes being echoed down through literature and art throughout the ages. These myths are even portrayed in poetry, as seen in Natasha Trethewey’s “Myth” and W. H. Auden’s “Musèe des Beaux Arts.” “Myth” makes a quick allusion to Erebus, part of the underworld in Greek mythology, while Auden’s poem references the story of Icarus, the boy who flew too close to the sun. The use of myths in both poems help to strengthen
leader in the Arts. Like the Eiffel Tower in 1889, it served as a focus for the Exposition. However, the two structures were very different. The Grand Palais placed much greater emphasis on ornamentation. The famous French writer Paul Morand stated that, "while in 1889 architecture was happily on the threshold of an age of iron and steel, in 1900 it had gone back to styles such as those taught at the Beaux-Arts." The Grand Palais incorporated what is commonly referred to as "Beaux-Arts style", which
man of the group, the New York architect Richard Morris Hunt. By the time Hunt was selected to design the Administration Building, he was near the end of his distinguished career. The first American architect to attend the prestigious Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Hunt had acquired the status of "dean of American architecture" (Stein 3). His reputation was supported by his large output of fine eclectic buildings such as the Breakers in Newport (1892-95) and Biltmore House in Asheville, North Carolina
The suffering of the world is often captivated in the work of the great poets like Robert Frost and W. H Auden. The similarities between Frost's "Design" and Auden's "Musee des Beaux Arts" include the belief that the world may be blind to human suffering and to that that causes the suffering. Apathy by the part of the human being is explained either by sheer ignorance of a greater power or by lack of time to consider the existence of such a power that controls the fate of humanity and all that is
San Francisco 1915 - Palace of Fine Arts The Palace of Fine Arts was one of the finest buildings constructed for the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. It was one of the most important symbols of the fair, situated near its center, at the end of the axis on which were located the Courts of the Four Seasons and of the Universe at the center, and the Court of Abundance, with the Machinery Palace framing the other side. The Palace was designed by a well known local