The Musee de Beaux Arts
The poem is about the death of hope. Auden is distraught over the deaths in WWII. The soldiers of WWII were teenagers. To have 55 million children dead is an act of pure genocide. To Auden the fact that people let this happen means that the world is an ugly place. Art is a thing of beauty and humans don't deserve it because of the ugly things we do. Auden uses The Fall of Icarus to describe the way people behave. Everyone sees that Icarus has fallen but they turn their heads instead of helping Icarus. That is how WWII was everyone knew that massive amounts of people would die but they just turned their heads. This poem contains an approach to its subject different from many other poems. The subjects of many other poems -love, war, etc.- are recognized and commented on by the poets. This is not the case here, for Auden shows art's importance by his initial comment that "About suffering, they were never wrong, the old masters," then investigates how the Old Masters show that they were never wrong. The Old Masters don't exactly have to represent people but I believe Auden is referring to the chorus of Oedipus. The chorus knows all about suffering and they know it shouldn't be. This poem is also written poorly because peopl
In the painting The Fall of Icarus the "ploughman" and the "delicate ship" did not just happen to be there; they were placed in the painting by the artist for a specific purpose - with the result that to Auden the true nature of suffering is shown. The necessity for recognition is Auden's comment on the reaction of people toward suffering in general. Certainly, the person who is being tortured realizes what suffering is, and certainly Icarus, his wings melted by the sun, knows suffering when he plunges toward the ocean. But what about the rest of humanity who are opening windows or "just walking dully along"? Even if they see forms of suffering, do they recognize it as such and feel anything? If you don't recognize suffering and try to prevent it are you truly human? The people that walked past Icarus are the same people that closed their eyes to WWII. For Auden if no one is paying any attention to important things such as death what do they need art for. It is just like A Farewell to Arms all the people outside of war don't feel the suffering so they don't care. The world is terrible because everyone is so wrapped up in their on ideas they can't help the fellow man. When the army had the huge retreat in Farewell to Arms nobody stopped to help the injured they took machines and things that were useful to them. There was such a big rush that people trampled on each other and killed each other just to save their own lives. Soldiers are supposed to give their lives to serve others but not in the twisted world we live in. The fact that we can't help each other means to Auden that we probably couldn't even see the art that we could be shown. The old masters remind me of the chorus in Oedipus. Auden says, "About suffering, they were never wrong, the old masters," he is saying that the old masters always knew of the suffering. The chorus also shares the death of hope because there is no hope in a world of pure suffering. The chorus tells Oedipus that suffering is something that you should try to live without. Oedipus being full of hubris had to seek out the truth which represented suffering. Humans in Auden's mind are exactly like Oedipus they have to be bitten by
Some common words found in the essay are:
Farewell Arms, Icarus Auden, Fall Icarus, Museum Arts, Icarus WWII, Humans Auden's, , Oedipus Auden, WWII Auden, people don't, don't care, death hope, pay attention, wrong masters, chorus oedipus, fall icarus, Beaux Arts, people pay attention, can't help, doesn't people, life auden, people don't care, poem death hope, suffering wrong masters,
Approximate Word count = 1481
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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