Musée des Beaux Arts

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1939

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Themes

Limits of Perception

The poem examines limitations—particularly in relationship to suffering. The human capacity for empathy is eclipsed by the ability to ignore uncomfortable realities. Extraordinary events occur offstage, out of the spotlight, and in the middle of everyday lives when people are “just walking dully along” (Line 4). It is easy to turn inward, to filter out our surroundings, and to get weighed down with personal concerns—the “somewhere to get to” (Line 21).

Individual perspective, in its own inherent limitations, also places limits on empathy and understanding. The children aren’t united with the aged “reverently, passionately waiting / For the miraculous birth” (Lines 5-6). They are too busy living, and perhaps their elders are too busy waiting to see what’s happening in the now.

One of the questions driving the poem is what the speaker is going to do about it. He recognizes the limitations and sees the suffering in the paintings. Whether he will carry that knowledge out into the world isn’t certain, but there’s hope he—or the readers of the poem—won’t leave the museum untouched.

Pervasiveness of Violence

“Musée des Beaux Arts” explores how deeply violence permeates human history and culture. The poem opens by invoking the “Old Masters” (Line 2), insisting “[a]bout suffering they were never wrong” (Line 1). It’s an age-old subject, part of a long tradition.

The speaker of the poem views and describes the Breughel paintings. Each of the alluded artworks blends older stories with landscapes and elements contemporary to the artist. Mary and Joseph are transported to a Brabant village, blending into the crowd. The Massacre of the Innocents occurs in a village in the Netherlands. Allegorical details in each work signal connections to other wars, other conflicts, and political issues of Breughel’s day. This effects a sense that wars and suffering are layered and woven—perhaps inevitable.

The speaker says The Old Masters “never forgot” (Line 9). Knowing, seeing, and depicting suffering, they demonstrate their understanding “[t]hat even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course” (Line 10). The Masters’ awareness stands in contrast to “how everything turns away” (Line 14) in the Icarus painting.

Breughel’s version of Ovid’s telling of the myth of Icarus is another example of layered traditions. It’s a story marked by the violent end of a boy who flew too close to the sun as he attempted to escape imprisonment. In Breughel’s painting and in Auden’s poem, all the viewer sees of the tale is a tiny pair of “white legs disappearing into the green / Water” (Lines 18-19). The tragedy is found only after a search.

“Musée des Beaux Arts” examines the apparent indifference to human suffering. It emphasizes how embedded these moments are in human cultural narratives and in the everyday lives humans attempt to find refuge in.

The Power of Art

Art has the power to overcome indifference and ignorance because it captures attention and engages the imagination. It has the power to provoke thought and evokes empathy.

Auden’s poem features multiple examples of both wonders and horrors unfolding without any discernible impact on their immediate surroundings. The “miraculous birth” (Line 7), the “dreadful martyrdom” (Line 10), and “a boy falling out of the sky” (Line 20) happen “[w]hile someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along” (Line 4). Children go ice skating. Animals do what they do. The laborer focuses on work and the well-to-do go sailing on.

A person’s ignorance of others’ suffering may result from their narrow focus on survival or the self. It may be due to their difficulty in recognizing the importance of suffering amid the multitude of other things competing for attention. It may be a matter of comfort—it’s easier to turn away, like the ploughman for whom the fall of Icarus “was not an important failure” (Line 17). The world goes on, and “the sun shone / As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green / Water” (Lines 17-19). The suggestion is that this indifference may be human nature rather than a symptom of individual villainy.

Recognizing suffering requires awareness and discipline—a trained eye, so to speak. And this is what “The Old Masters” (Line 2) have: “About suffering they were never wrong,” (Line 1) the speaker says. They “understood / Its human position” (Lines 2-3), and they illustrate it in their works. Their artwork offers a space outside of the bustle of daily life to slow down, to look, and to contemplate the nature of the suffering it depicts. They ask their viewers to connect and interpret.

The speaker takes advantage of the opportunity. He considers the questions of suffering and perspective. He contemplates human nature. The descriptions of the art, in turn, creates space in the poem for readers to do the same.

“Musée des Beaux Arts” provokes thought and empathy. It almost dares readers to refuse the temptation to walk “calmly on” (Line 21).