Wystan Hugh

Wystan Hugh was born on February 21, 1907 in York, England. His mother, Constance Rosalie Bicknell Auden, was a strict Anglican. His father, George Augustus Auden, was a physician and knew plenty of mythology and folklore. He married Erica Mann in Auden started with an engineering scholarships that got him into Oxford University. Changed his field to English, because he was fascinated by poetry. He was still interested in science, he makes scientific references in his poetry. Graduated Oxford University in Died September 29, 1973 in his sleep.

 The poem is free verse, which means that it has unrhymed lines without a regular rhythm.  There is enjambment on lines 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 18, 19, and 20.  The tone/ diction in the poem is nonchalant. Nonchalant meaning unconcerned, indifferent, or unexcited. The tone shows in line 12 and 13.

T he poem “Musee des Beaux Arts” by W.H. Aden illustrates how cruel and unforgiving the world is. This poem consists of two stanzas. The first stanza is believed to be written about “The Massacre of the Innocents” by the painter Peter Paul Rubens, and the second stanza is about the painting “The Fall of Icarus” by Rubens as well.

Stanza one explains and depicts many different paintings, mostly by Brueghel. It takes place at the Museum of Fine Arts. The first two lines mention the Old Masters, who in reality are the painters of old famous artwork and how well they understood, and pain. In line four, Auden says that people go on living with their lives, everything around us changes, but we don’t even notice it. The next few lines of the poem explains the birth of Jesus.

The seoond stanza is about; “ Landscape With The Fall of Icarus”. The story is about Daedal us’ son, Icarus, flew to close to the sun, and it wings melted and he fell into the ocean. All you can see of the boy is his legs sticking above the water. In the poem, its point out there was a ship, and Ploughman. They obviously saw the boy fall out of the sky, however the world around Icarus was to caught up to care.

 This painting has a lot to do with the foreground and background. In the foreground there is a man plowing his field and another man taking care of his flock of sheep. In the background you can see two legs sticking out of the water, that is Icarus. Icarus is the son of Daedal who created the wax wings, he told his son Icarus not to fly close to the sun, because the wings would melt, and not to fly close to the ocean because the wings the waves would hit them. His father to fly only on the middle ground. Icarus didn’t listen and flew really high, in which his wings melted and fell to the ocean. The main theme of this painting is that person’s life may be wrong and their world completely stops, but everyone else’s keeps going. In the painting people continue doing the things they care about and ignore what has happened to Icarus. This painting gives another example of a ship sailing away of Icarus instead of towards him and trying to help him.

1. Where was the author born? 2. Who does the author refer to as “The Old Masters”? 3. What body part of Icarus is shown in the painting? 4. What does “Passionately waiting for the miraculous birth” refer to? 5. Where does this poem take place? 6. What paintings are being alluded to in line 8 and the second stanza? 7. What kind of poem is this? 8. Who is in the foreground of this painting? 9. Who was the father of Icarus? 10. What were the Old Masters never wrong about?