"Musée des Beaux Arts" by W. H. Auden
Dylan Yates
Thesis:
 "Musée des Beaux Arts" is commonly believed to be about the inwardness and
singularity of suffering and the effect it has on the rest of the world.
About the Poem:
 It is lyric poem divided into two stanzas, the first is about suffering, while the second
gives an example of suffering.
 "Musée des Beaux Arts" relies heavily on Brueghel's painting, "Landscape with the Fall
of Icarus" to describe the images in the second stanza.
 "Musée des Beaux Arts" means, when translated from French to English, "Museum of
Fine Arts."
The First Stanza:
 The first stanza of "Musée des Beaux Arts" begins with the notion of suffering, which is
a theme throughout the poem.
 Auden states that suffering can happen, "While someone else is eating or opening a
window or just walking dully along" (Auden 4). He is saying that suffering is purely a
singular act, and it has no effect on others or the rest of the world.
 The Old Masters are the great European painters from the twelfth century up to the
nineteenth century.
 Elderly people have accepted that death is a part of life, while children are afraid of
death.
The Second Stanza:
 The second stanza is about Brueghel's painting, "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus," and
how it relates to the first stanza.
 The ploughman and the ship were too busy or did not care that Icarus was drowning.
 An example for how suffering has no effect on the world.
My Interpretation:
 The overlying theme throughout "Musée des Beaux Arts" is individual suffering and how
it has no effect on the rest of the world, but also how suffering should have an effect on
the world.
 People turn their heads away from other people suffering and pretend they just didn’t see.
 Perhaps the suffering of others should effect the rest of the world.
Critical Interpretations:
 "Critics, and apparently Auden himself, understand the first stanza as a statement of
generality and the second as an example of that generality…" (Hochman).
 "Is this poem about acceptance (comedy) or rejection (tragedy) of the privacy of
suffering? Now it can be said that the poem is about both" (Hochman).