Blaine Des Beaux Arts
W.H. Auden – Musée des Beaux Arts
Auden’s poem ‘Musée des Beaux Arts’ gives us the poet’s philosophy on Breughel’s painting of the ‘Icarus myth’ from Greek history. The poem is based on many different themes depending on a single aspect (the reader would have to assume that Auden is writing about Breughel’s painting - as referenced in the second stanza).
In this essay, I am going to analyse and identify key themes, structure, language devices, tone, and imagery from W.H. Auden’s pre-Second World War poem ‘Musée des Beaux Arts’.
Auden’s poem is based on what is known as ‘assumed knowledge’. “In Breughel’s Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away”. This implies that Auden expects the audience to have seen – or at least heard of – either the painting or the story from Greek mythology. However, it does give insight on an alternative meaning to the prose. …show more content…
i.e. Second World War) which links with the historical context in the poem. “How everything turns away”. This infers that Auden is talking about how Europe ‘turned away’ from what was happening in Nazi Germany during the early 1940s (when the poem was written). In addition, the contrast in words used within the poem (“innocent behind”) are used to juxtapose how W.H. Auden has put the idea of Europe practically ignoring the Holocaust with the Icarus disaster – which is used to illustrate Auden’s opinions and views of what was happening during the 1940s in Second World War
Auden’s poem ‘Musée des Beaux Arts’ gives us the poet’s philosophy on Breughel’s painting of the ‘Icarus myth’ from Greek history. The poem is based on many different themes depending on a single aspect (the reader would have to assume that Auden is writing about Breughel’s painting - as referenced in the second stanza).
In this essay, I am going to analyse and identify key themes, structure, language devices, tone, and imagery from W.H. Auden’s pre-Second World War poem ‘Musée des Beaux Arts’.
Auden’s poem is based on what is known as ‘assumed knowledge’. “In Breughel’s Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away”. This implies that Auden expects the audience to have seen – or at least heard of – either the painting or the story from Greek mythology. However, it does give insight on an alternative meaning to the prose. …show more content…
i.e. Second World War) which links with the historical context in the poem. “How everything turns away”. This infers that Auden is talking about how Europe ‘turned away’ from what was happening in Nazi Germany during the early 1940s (when the poem was written). In addition, the contrast in words used within the poem (“innocent behind”) are used to juxtapose how W.H. Auden has put the idea of Europe practically ignoring the Holocaust with the Icarus disaster – which is used to illustrate Auden’s opinions and views of what was happening during the 1940s in Second World War