Abstract This paper argues that, in writing "Musee des Beaux Arts", Auden, chose to write about the painting because it captures one of his central themes of the suffering and unfeeling attitude in everyday life. By analyzing "Musee des Beaux Arts," we can see how Auden uses imagery, language, and the classical theme of the fall of Icarus not only to communicate his theme, but to discuss Brueghel's painting.
From the Paper "Auden's use of the Icarus image and of the work of Old Master Brueghel show classical style, but the poetic form of "Musee" is not classical. He uses two unequal stanzas and a varied rhyme pattern that was uncommon in his era. He opens the poem with a reference to the Old Dutch Master painters of the 16th century, of which Bruegel was a member: "About suffering they were never wrong, / The Old Masters: how well they understood / Its human position..." "
Abstract This paper explores the works and styles employed by Cecilia Beaux and one of her teachers, John Singer Sargent. It gives a brief personal history of each painter and their early influences. It further explores their unique styles, for Beaux, it was based on French impressionism and color, and Sargent's ability to portray essence. Finally this paper attempts to show why portraits remained popular during a time in which photography was widely used.
From the Paper "One of the reasons that Beaux and Sargent were popular painters even in an era in which portraiture was becoming more and more the domain of the photographer was that while portraits have always been made to serve as keepsakes and visual memoirs, they have also always served other functions as well, perhaps the primary of these being to mark the social status of the subject. Portraits by their very nature never be mass-produced but must also be commissioned. This means that they are expensive, requiring someone to be able to pay an artist to devote all of her or his skills and time to the subject alone. Thus portraits have always served as a proxy, a marker of high status."
This paper reviews W.H. Auden's poem, "Musee de Beaux Arts", an analysis of a motif from Pieter Brueghel's paintings that humans continue their lives despite events of human suffering.
Abstract This paper discusses Auden's poem "Musee de Beaux Arts", which presents the idea that Breughel's work depicted everyday events but in the corner of the painting is a small depiction of human suffering such as the crucifixion of Jesus. The author asks "What can any one man do to make a difference in the face of human tragedy?" and states that Auden's answer would be: Tell the tale, paint the picture, write the poem describing the human suffering to rouse others to consciousness and involvement.
From the Paper "The first painting, Auden passes,, depicts an example of 'human position" of suffering, a moment of pain, which also is a moment of glory: The birth of Christ. While a woman struggles in labor, the old men, indifferent to her suffering, 'reverently, passionately (await)" (line 6) the product of her labor, and children already born, "who did not specially want it to happen" (lines 7-8) go on with their play, "skating on a pond at the edge of the wood" (lines 8-9)."
Abstract This paper discusses the New York Yacht Club (NYYC) as a prominent example of Beaux-Arts architecture in New York City. Located at 37 West 44th Street, the building, which opened in 1901, was designed by Whitney Warren and Charles D. Wetmore. It explains how the clubhouse is a historical landmark, and is best known for its Model Room and Library.
From the Paper "Warren and Wetmore were typical of the leading architects of their time, most of whom established offices in New York after studying at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. A They specialized in the design of buildings inspired by historic European and American colonial styles as well as contemporary French Beaux-Arts ideals, setting the stage for an academic revival that had a far-reaching influence on American design, particularly in the 1890s and first decades of the 20th century.@ (Philadelphia Online/Books/Chapter One)"
Abstract This paper compares and contrasts George Farquhar's 'The Beaux Stratagem' and Oliver Goldsmith's 'She Stoops to Conquer'. After providing the reader with adequate data, the author takes a position in conclusion.
Abstract W.H. Auden's poem, "Musee des Beaux Arts", was inspired by the images of suffering in a painting by Brueghel. The paper shows how the central image of the painting serves to convey Auden's idea that only artists, the "Old Masters", truly understood suffering from a global point of view.
From the Paper "Auden uses the structure of the poem to visually present his conflict. The first part of the poem is a general depiction of suffering and the indifference to this suffering. Whereas he names specific instances of suffering, the poet does not put a name to any of the persons engaged either in suffering or in indifference. He only refers to them only as "the aged" and "children". The same is true of artists, who receive the general reference of "Old Masters" in the first part of the poem. During the second part of the poem Auden suddenly turns to specific suffering. One specific person, depicted in one specific painting by one specific artist is mentioned."
Abstract This paper looks at both the structure and thematic content of Auden's poem and matches it against the sonnet template. The author then makes the case that Auden's poem, ostensibly a free verse piece, meets much of the criteria of a traditional sonnet.
From the Paper "If one were to sample from the world of the sonnet, one would encounter rhyme and recognizable structure. While the structure might vary-from the English form, with its three quatrains and closing couplet, to the Italian sonnet, with its rima biaciata-ordered octave and concluding sestet,-the reader would experience iambic pentameter organized into fourteen lines, each line's closing contributing to the poem's definable rhyming sequence. Even the heroic sonnet with its rebellious extra quatrain would still conform to this strict poetic structure, including the "turn" explained by Paul Fussell as "a logical or emotional shift by which the speaker enables himself to take a new or altered or enlarged view of his subject" (116). W.H. Auden's "Musee des Beaux Arts," with its thirteen-line first stanza and eight-line second, does not fulfil either the sonnet's line requirements or its rhyme constraints; both its end rhymes and meter, while present, are chaotic in nature (Auden, 2505) ."
The following paper compares Ambrose Bierce's short story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" where a young man faces execution, to W. H. Auden's poem "Musee des Beaux Arts" which describes Breughel's painting, "Fall of Icarus".
Abstract This paper examines how both Bierce's short story and Auden's poem imply that humankind is cruel at best, indifferent at worst. However, the author discovers how these pieces also differ from each other in many ways. This essay distinguishes between the way in which Bierce sees death as a 'dignitary' who must be met with certain rituals as compared to Auden who sees death as haphazard, accidental, occurring without ritual or even much notice.
From the Paper ?Bierce and Auden seem to take a similar dim view of human nature. In the early paragraphs of ?An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,? Bierce shows the condemned Farquhar to be a loving husband and father. (?He closed his eyes in order to fix his last thoughts upon his wife and children.?) Bierce also describes Farquhar as having a ?kindly expression.? However, this does nothing to soften the hearts of his captors. ?The liberal military code makes provision for hanging many kinds of persons, and gentlemen are not excluded,? Bierce tells the reader. Not only are the officers committed to hanging Farquhar, they make every possible effort to kill him following his ?escape.?
From the Paper " The Myth of Icarus
Generally, the gods in Greek mythology are portrayed as human in form and in character. However, as Morford & Lenardon state, although they may look and act like men, "very often their appearance and their actions are at least to some extent idealized" (73). This means that their beauty usually appears as beyond that of ordinary mortals, their passions are grander and more intense, and their feelings more praiseworthy and touching (Morford & Lenardon 73). Nonetheless, Morford & Lenardon observe that these gods, who can often "embody and impose the loftiest moral values in the universe," also can mirror the physical and spiritual weakness of their human counterparts (73). They can be crippled or deformed, and vain, petty, and insincere. They can steal, lie, and cheat, "sometimes with a finesse that is.."
Abstract This research paper on the New York Public Library contains a detailed architectural study of the library, its Beaux-Arts style and a substantive history. It also contains some information about the Humanities and Social Sciences collection that is currently housed in the original NYPL building on 5th Ave. and 42nd Street.
Abstract This paper proves how the poem's text can be called into question because it contains oppositions and gaps that are left to be filled in, creating a different analysis from the normative reading. Auden said that the Old Masters believed that tragic events experienced by individuals are viewed with apathy by others. This paper proves quite the opposite.
From the Paper "The theme of the poem "Musee des Beaux Arts" by W.H. Auden can be interpreted to reveal that the most tragic and miraculous events experienced by individuals is viewed with apathy by others, according to the Old Masters. The poem reads, ?About suffering they were never wrong,/ The Old Masters; how well, they understood/ Its human position.? However, a closer examination of this poem proves quite the opposite. First, The Old Masters did not agree on this "human position". There are many opinions to take into consideration. Secondly, further analysis reveals that the broad consensus of the Old Masters is that the majority of humans do pay attention and feel for those that experience such events."
Abstract Poets make a conscious decision with ekphrastic poetry (poems based on works of art) as to the extent of the role of the artwork in the poem. This paper looks at Elizabeth Bishop's "Large Bad Picture" and compares it to W.H. Auden's "Musee des Beaux Arts" and explores each poet's different ekphrastic approach.
From the Paper "Bishop's poem, unlike Auden's, takes for its basis an unknown work of art. She overcomes reader unfamiliarity with the painting by describing the painting in close detail. Then by providing a wealth of personal details about the artist in the first stanza-his profession, his love of exploring the Canadian coastline-she establishes her reliability as a narrator. It is as if Bishop pulls up a chair and invites her reader to sit down and listen while she shares all she knows about an awful painting and its painter. This initial grounding is a technique described by poet William Stafford as "traction on the ice between writer and reader-statements that do not demand much belief, easy claims, even undeniable progressions without need of authority" (65)."
Abstract This paper examines the role of paintings in ekphrastic poetry (the rhetorical description of a work of art). It shows how Elizabeth Bishop makes her fictional painting 'real' through her poem, "Large Bad Picture". It presents a comparison between "Large Bad Picture" to W.H. Auden's "Musee des Beaux Arts." The paper also provides an examination of how Bishop divides her poem between setting the scene and then delivering the poem's argument.
From the Paper "Having settled her reader comfortably, Bishop then takes the next two stanzas to describe in clear, precise language the subject of the painting. In one long sentence enjambed over two stanzas, she describes the sunset, the span of high blue cliffs and the small caves that dot their base. The final line of the third stanza returns the reader to the title describing the caves that riddle the cliffs as being "masked by perfect waves." (12). Her description of the waves as being "perfect" give the first hint of her contention that this is a bad picture. The reader begins to understand that this composition, while possibly well executed, is unrealistic, that the painter has seen perfection in natural phenomina that are inherently imperfect and organic."
Abstract This paper explores two particular poems that effectively address society's universal attitude of disregard when faced with tragedy and the lonely, silent horror of death. The paper examines "Musee des Beaux Arts", by W.H. Auden, which sheds some insight into the history of emotional disengagement as it has occurred through the ages. Conversely, it explores Robert Frost's poem, "Out, Out", which describes a powerful, isolated example of the single-minded ambivalence of human nature.
From the Paper "This statement lends credence to society's somewhat Darwinian state of mind. The loss was not their own, but perhaps a gritty reminder of how close death can come to one's doorstep. By turning away and seemingly picking up where they left off, they were disconnecting from the eventual certainty of their own demise in an attempt to restore the predictable, comforting rhythm of life."
