Explanation of Poem Musee des Beaux Arts
A free verse poem "Musee des Beaux Arts" (Museum of Fine Arts) was composed by British-American poet Wystan Hugh Auden (1907-1973) in December 1938 when he was in Brussels, the capital of Belgium. It was published in 1939 under the title " Palais des Beaux-Arts " (Palace of Fine Arts). The title of this poem is derived from ' Musees Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique '; it's a French name for the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium. The museum is famous for its collection of early Netherlandish paintings. It has two parts. The first part describes the scene of suffering, parallel to others who are busy with their daily chores, and also depicts the massacre of children. The second part refers to a painting of Icarus, which allows the reader to visualise the indifference of humans. The central theme of this poem is human indifference . To deal with it, he incorporated three paintings that he saw in a gallery, the Old Master Museum in Brussels, Belgi...