Musee Des Beaux Arts Wh Auden Analysis

Discuss how W. H. Auden connects life and art in "Musee des Beaux Arts." Introduction It is inevitable that tragic events happen in life. Perhaps it is only a few people who are affected, perhaps there are millions, but they always move on from these tragedies. In the poem "Musee des Beaux Arts," by W. H. Auden, the author uses references from the painting "Icarus" by Peter Breughel. This painting shows a boy drowning in the ocean, while all the focus of the painting is away from that, as everyone in the painting continues about their own business. Auden connects this event in the painting to real life. While we are all affected by tragic events at some point in life, Auden uses imagery and descriptions linking the tragedies and everyday
life, to show that life always keeps moving on. Point summary I. Auden uses imagery to describe the terrible tragedies. -"The ploughman may have heard the splash, the forsaken cry." shows the sounds of this tragedy and how the ploughman would have heard.
-"The sun shone as it had on the white legs disappearing into the green." shows the visual of Icarus drowning II. Auden describes how daily life is continuing on. -"When someone else is eating or opening a windor or just walking dully along" shows simple daily life, unimportant things. -"Everything turns away quite leisurely from the disaster" shows how people are turning away from the disaster, we get a sense that they are selfish with their own business and they continue on. III. Auden describes daily life continuing despite the tragedies. -"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." describes how someone on the large ship must have seen this tragedy, however they had their own things they thought were important to tend to. -"...the dreadful martyrdom must run its course, anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot, where the dogs go on with their doggy life.." showing how dreadful tragedies occur everywhere, yet anyhow dogs are going on with life, as are all
humans. Conclusion Everyone goes through tragedies in life. The speaker of this poem connects the link between Breughels painting and the fact of life that we all move on through these tragedies, because we are too selfish, or after time we simply move on. Like the poem, we all continue living our daily lives through tragedies. Bad things may happen to strangers, so we do not care enough to stop our own daily tasks. Tragic events may happen to people we know, and we may be affected, but either way after time the tragic event will pass and we realize life moves on. Auden finalizes this message with "...had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on." The poem connected this event in the poem to the real life fact that we all have other things to do and things that