Suffering In 'Musee Des Beaux Arts' By W. H. Auden

Why do ordinary, rational, human beings actively and knowingly seek out art that appears to elicit negative emotions, especially as these same people tend to avoid such emotions in other areas of their life? This question formally understood as the paradox of painful art is what Hume effectively attempts to address in his essay 'Of Tragedy'. In this essay I will conclude that Hume's solution to this paradox; that painful emotions elicited by art are converted into pleasurable ones; is indefensible. I will first offer my reading of Hume's solution to the paradox of painful art. I will then argue that Hume fails to give a satisfying account of the process of the conversion he proposes, I will then go onto show that Hume's conversion theory

The speaker also states that poetry is not as important as other aspects of life. However, the speaker presents a new side to poetry by declaring, “Reading it, however, with a perfect contempt for it, one discovers in it after all, a place for the genuine.” This sentence is special because it is an example of a periodic sentence, in which the meaning of the sentence is delayed until the final clause. It forces the reader to understand that poetry takes time to connect with and understand, and the sentence also reflects how poetry itself usually doesn’t make sense until the very end.

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 societies’ indifference to human suffering through the form of his poem and by alluding to artwork that compares human perceptions and juxtaposes ordinary images with images of suffering and tragedy.

I believe that the misfortune of the human condition is the ability to image and conceptualize. These are both a blessing and a curse, and can come with great consequences and despite all our awe-inspiring accomplishments, we humans have been the fiercest and most devastating force that has ever lived on Earth. Undeniably humans have an indescribable history of brutality, murder, rape and war; yet we are capable of great love. People's mindfulness and true self awareness contributes to this ultimate irony. Poetry explores the different properties of the human condition; but we can discern what the poet may choose to embody in his or her poetry.

W. H. Auden's poem however is quite different. "Musee des Beaux Arts" is written in free verse, meaning that the poem is essentially "free" of meter, regular rhythm, or a rhyme scheme. Like the specific structural considerations of the sonnet form, the seeming lack of structure which free verse offers is purposely employed and works to illuminate the poem's meaning. In Auden's poem, the long irregular lines, subtly enforced by the irregular end rhyme pattern, create a casual, conversational air more prosaic than poetic, and a somewhat nonchalant tone which is reflective of the compassionate world illustrated in Brueghel's art. For example, in Auden's poem there is a subtle rhyme scheme that is throughout the poem. The poem's first line rhymes with the fourth but the fifth rhymes with the seventh. So although there is a rhyme scheme it is a non-traditional. This concept imitates the painting in the way that when looking at the painting you know that Icarus is drowning somewhere, but you do not see him until you really start concentrating on the images painted on the canvas. The casual, easy-going argument the tone suggests is ironic for the

The narrator speaks about her long and painful misery but in reality it is just lasts as long as a song but seems to her it seems like it’s been a life time worth of suffering. Conformity to societal expectations: this is a huge part of urban life because most people

Many people analyze a poem and desperately try to find the meaning of it. In “Introduction to Poetry,” Billy Collins uses personification, metaphors, and diction to demonstrate that poetry often loses some of its joy when it is over-analyzed for its meaning.

In humanity, one chooses to spend the most amount of time doing what they love in order to result in a satisfying and happily lived existence. Richard Wilbur expresses his appreciation and value of life throughout the poem, “A Late Aubade”. This poem is influenced and based off of Wilbur’s strong relationship with his devoted wife. It emphasizes throughout detailed imagery how one must enjoy the moments they have and can share with their loved one. The existence of an individual is not about wasting time by being out and completing unnecessary jobs, it’s about spending time doing what one loves to do. Wilbur is convincing his wife to not go about on her “womanly” daily activities; he wants her to stay and to take advantage of the few valuable moments life offers for them to be together. Throughout “A Late Aubade”, Wilbur stresses by applying descriptive language that in life, one must not waste any precious time and should rather focus on what they are passionate about.

W. H. Auden, living during 1907-1973, is a man of class. He loved to visit an art gallery, which was called “Museum of Beautiful Art” (In French: Musee des Beaux Arts). Like T. S. Eliot, he was both an American poet and a British poet. Going back to Auden visiting the art gallery, he stared at this one painting. He stared at it for an extended amount of time, trying to determine what the piece of art meant. The piece of art, which Auden was trying to decode, was called “The Fall of Icarus” (The painter is a man named Brueghel). In Brueghel’s painting, the focus is on Icarus, but you barley notice the boy himself. It is very important to know the story of Daedalus and Icarus to fully understand this painting, poem, and essay. If you do not know the story, then go read it and then come read this to acquire the full grasp of what I am trying to emit out in words. The reason why there is a poem by W. H. Auden, is because when Auden looks at the painting he sees something so profound. So profound, he writes a poem about it. The things he finds so profound is, 1)

Throughout the poem Auden satirizes conformity. Throughout the poem the man was praised for working at an automobile company, and paying his dues, two actions that are relatively mundane. This poem showcases how living a society encouraged is in fact ones downfall. The man went to war when there was war, further emphasizing how he followed society, conforming to the fact that you have to enlist when drafted. Auden emphasizes how the lifestyle society strives for people to attain is in fact brainwashing them into conformity. The man never questions why he has to carry out his life in this way, and for that reason the man dies anonymously just another subject of society, who never learned how to deviate off the standard

From Greece to Rome and to Britain, the world’s most renowned philosophers and literary writers have tackled the concept of suffering. From Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, to the poetry written by Jonathan Swift, John Donne and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, multiple literary scholars have demonstrated suffering throughout the last couple centuries. Whether it may be sexual suffering as seen in the work of John Donne’s His Mistress Going to Bed, and Jonathan Swifts The Lady’s Dressing Room and A Beautiful Nymph Going to Bed, or the emotional, physical and psychological suffering in Oedipus the King, literature’s greatest authors have allowed audiences to experience a character’s suffering and emotions in various forms – sexually, emotionally, physically

World Apathy though poem Would you ignore someone if they needed help? Though lines (15-17) in “Musee des Beaux Arts” it can be interpreted that the farmer might have heard Icarus falling into the ocean; to him, this wasn’t an important failure. The sun still shone. W.H Auden creates the theme through the use of language and stylistic devices: imagery, allusion, and tone to create the theme of apathy.

The painful light of human's actions is executed simply through Auden’s interpretation of the painting in the museum. It is clear that Auden believes we are too passive and poor with the power we hold. With fair judgement, I agree- the painting along with the poem makes sense that most would like to keep quiet about. Yet another one of our many flaws, change can be good as long as we want it to

Auden dubbed “Musee des Beaux Arts” is a poem written around the basic human instinct that is survival. Auden refers to the painting “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” by saying that “In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away/Quite leisurely from the disaster;”. The disaster being Icarus’ falling. The poet elucidated that people saw Icarus fall, but they turned away because Icarus didn’t know them, and they didn’t know him. Auden made the question that was going on in the villagers’ heads clear: Why should we care about Icarus? If the villagers cared about him, then they would have to care about every single other death that didn’t relate to them. Bringing chaos and devastation to the world because no one would have time to keep the world in order. Thus brilliantly, Auden made clear that the central theme in his poem is