English III CPC
“Musee des Beaux Arts”
W.H. Auden
"Musée des Beaux Arts" (French for "Museum of Fine Arts") is a poem written by W.H. Auden
in December 1938 while Auden was staying in Brussels, Belgium. The poem's title derives from
the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique in Brussels. Auden visited the Musée and
would have seen a number of works by, or attributed to, one of those "Old Masters" of his
second line, including Pieter Brueghel and his painting Landscape With The Fall of Icarus.
In Greek mythology, Icarus is the son of the master craftsman Daedalus. The main story told
about Icarus is his attempt to escape from Crete by means of wings that his father constructed
from feathers and wax. He ignored instructions not to fly too close to the sun, and the melting
wax caused him to fall into the sea where he drowned.
Pre-reading: In this poem, Auden comments on the indifference of humans to one another’s
misfortunes. How does the painting Landscape With The Fall of Icarus (1560) by Pieter
Brueghel depict this indifference? Look closely at the painting.
“Musee des Beaux Arts” -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.
1. Who do you think the Old Masters would be and why are they never wrong about the
human position on suffering?
2. What point is the speaker making in line 4 and in lines 11-13?
3. What does leisurely mean as it is used in the context? What clues did you use to
determine the meaning?
4. What 3 specific elements of the painting that Auden uses to show indifference in the
poem?
5. “The sun shone as it had to.” How does the sun differ from the other two in regards to
the indifference to the fall of Icarus? Explain.
6. What point is the poet making about human indifference? Use a line from the poem to
support the theme.
7. What can we as humans do to overcome human indifference?
8. What is Auden implying about art in the poem? Explain your choice.
a.
b.
c.
d.
Is art supposed to be just beautiful (like Oscar Wilde would say)?
Is art supposed to make a political statement?
Art can only be appreciated by true master of art?
Art can be relevant to our everyday lives.