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1. Thread. Poetry is sublime and worthy of study! Here, I want to examine W. H. Auden's wonderful poem, "Musée des Beaux Arts," which uses paintings from a museum of fine arts to reflect upon human indifference to suffering and the relation between art and truth.
2. The poem uses paintings by Peter Brueghel the Elder and the Younger to illustrate Auden's themes. Here are some of the paintings. I will cover them in more depth when I go over the poem more closely.
3. With odd syntax the poem begins: "About suffering they were never wrong..." It thus establishes a dispassionate and conversational (although educated) tone and states its theme immediately by beginning with the prepositional phrase: The "human position" of suffering.
4. But who are the "old masters" who were "never wrong"? Well, they are the painters Brueghel and Younger and Elder. They understood, because they depicted it in their paintings, how suffering occurs while others are completely absorbed in their own mundane lives.
5. At this point, Auden alludes specifically to Brueghel the Elder's painting, "Census at Bethlehem," which shows Joseph and Mary coming to Bethlehem to register for the census. (Mary is in blue in the foreground and pregnant.)
6. Auden notes that while some of the aged are "reverently, passionately waiting" for the birth of Jesus, many youngsters are utterly indifferent to the miracle, just wrapped up in their own lives, skating on the pond in the background.
7. So while the greatest, most important birth in the history of Western Civilization is on its way, most people don't care and too distracted by the daily details of their own existence to pay attention. The great dramas in life are ignored by most people at the time.
8. Auden then moves to another painting, Brueghel's "Massacre of the Innocents." It depicts Spanish and Germans soldiers attacking Flemish villagers in a 16-century village in Spanish Netherlands.
9. Auden notes that the "martyrdom must run its course" in "where the dogs go on with their doggy life." This is a great line. What kind of lives do dogs live? Well, "doggy" ones of course! It's the perfect adjective: dogs are dogs are dogs and that is all.
10. And while the dog is going about its doggy life, the torturer's horse is "scratches its innocent behind on a tree." The dog and the horse, like the children in the other painting, are utterly ignorant of the significance of the surrounding scenery.
11. Notice that this isn't because the dogs, the kids, the horse are malevolent or even selfish in a pejorative sense. In fact, Auden tells us that the horse's behind is "innocent." They just don't know, don't understand the what is happening around them. (Adults should though!)
12. So far, then, we have seen that kids were indifferent to the Jesus' birth, that horses and dogs were ignorant of the immense suffering of villagers around them, and that even the torturer's horse had no idea what his owner is or does, and just casually scratched its behind.
13. Suffering seems very important to those suffering; pain has, to quote Emily Dickinson, an "infinite realm." But to others, those who are not suffering, it can seem a trifle. When I scratch my hand, it's a tragedy. When somebody else loses a limb, I often don't even know.
14. In the next stanza, Auden continues to use paintings to elaborate his theme. He now refers to Brueghel's Icarus, one of my favorite paintings, which depicts the eponymous character plunging from the sky into the sea after the wax on his wings melted.
15. It's a fascinating painting because Icarus's splash is shown only in the lower righthand corner and appears almost accidental to the paining, as if Brueghel was trying to capture a man ploughing his field and just happened to capture a great scene from Greek tragedy.
16. Auden tells us that everything "turns away from the disaster," but he uses an amazing adverb that transforms this line from ordinary to excellent: Leisurely. The ploughman is not turning away in horror; rather, he is turning away because it wasn't an "important failure."
17. Auden writes, "the sun shone/As it had to on the white legs." In other words, the sun wasn't highlighting Icarus's tragedy. It was simply doing what the sun does: Shining upon the world. The nature, like the kids, like the dogs, like the horses, is also indifferent.
18. The poem concludes that the "expensive, delicate ship" that saw "a boy falling out of the sky" had to get somewhere and so, instead of gawking at the tragedy or helping the fallen boy, it "sailed calmly on."
19. Auden's poem is truly great because every part of it works together to illustrate the theme: That suffering seems important to those who are suffering but takes place in an a generally indifferent universe in which others pay no special attention.
20. The tone is conversational and detached. But, this detachment works to make a moral point without being explicitly didactic: Adults greet suffering the same way that animals, children, and even the elements do; but adults are not necessarily innocent the way a horse is.
21. This poem is thus a masterclass in socially conscious art (and in this it mimics the paintings it uses to illustrate its point): It shows us how indifferent humans can be: It does not explicitly chastise us for our moral failures, but it does draw our attention to them.
22. Note also that the poem's other great theme, the relation of art to truth, is also implied, not stated. The paintings in the museum contain universal moral truths and help the poet to reflect upon the position of suffering in the universe.
23. The poem is conversational but eloquent; it displays a poet fully in command of the language, not resorting to obvious poetic embellishments such as steady, metrical beats or excessive alliteration. Instead, it relies on more subtle techniques such as assonance.
24. For example, in the first two lines, we get: "About suff*er*ing they w*er*e nev*er* wrong,
The Old Mast*er*s: how well they und*er*stood." Auden was a formal genius, and many of his poems illustrate his complete command of poetic technique.
The Old Mast*er*s: how well they und*er*stood." Auden was a formal genius, and many of his poems illustrate his complete command of poetic technique.
25. A short poem is the most brilliant concentration of thought and language. Auden's poem is only 21 lines, but it is so rich with allusion and with technique that one could profitably read it hundreds of times. I already have. And I'll read it hundreds more.
