Musee de Beaux Arts by W. H. Auden

About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters; how well, they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturers horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.

 

In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.

Initial Impression:

The author of the poem is uses references such as the birth or Crucifixion of Christ and the fall of Icarus and comparing those major events to what happens in other everyday lives at the same time. He is saying that even though these major events are happening in other lives, all the normal people are going on with their normal routine. There is one line where he says, "That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course/Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot/Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturers horse/Scratches its innocent behind on a tree." I think this part is referring to the Crucifixion of Christ and he is saying that even though this torture is going on, the animals that belong to the people are still going through routine and even scratching their behinds.

Paraphrase:
The Old Masters understood human suffering and human position. While other people are eating or opening a window or just walking along, someone else is passionately waiting for the miraculous birth. While some are waiting for this, there are always children who don't really care. They are skating on a pond on the edge of the woods. No one forgot that even though Christ was being crucified, the dogs still went on with their life and the horse that belonged to the man torturing Christ was scratching his butt on a tree. You can see this in Brueghel's Icarus how everyone is turning their heads away as Icarus falls in the water. The plowman might have heard the splash or his cry, but it didn't mean anything to him. The sun shone on him as it had done on Icarus's leg out of the water. The ship in the water might have seen the boy falling out of the sky, but they had somewhere to go and just kept sailing along.

SWIFTT:
SW- The poem is separated into two stanzas; the first talking about everyday life going on no matter what happens, and the second talking about the painting where Icarus is falling. The word choice is purposely childish in the first stanza, with words like "doggy."
I- The imagery of this poem is very intense. The first stanza paints a vivid picture of people living there everyday lives while much more important events are happening. The second stanza describes the painting Icarus. If you look at the picture while reading the poem, it helps the reader visualize the poem.
F- There is no explicit figurative language.
T- The tone of the poem captures the essence of the subject matter of the poem. The tone is laid back, just like the attitudes of the people living their lives.
T- The theme of the poem is that while disaster can be happening in one place, there will always be people who are living their own simple lives.

Conclusion:
Overall the people in the poem don't care about the other events occuring around them. Not just that they don't care, but they are ignorant to them. If they found out about the events, they might feel sympathy, but they have no clue what is going on around them so it doesn't phase them at all. I looked at the poem too simply in the beginning, but now I see it more in dept.