Understanding WH Auden's "Musée de Beaux Arts"

a college prof explains the poem

[@saby568]

its crazy seeing you grow through doing 8 years of youtube.

[@Tony-tn2dj]

Thank you, professor, for the insight into this poem. I had never read it before until I was given it for an English Comp 2 class assignment. I have been affected by a death in my family and other experiences of hardship and suffering ( I am an old-school college student), and it is not hard for me to connect with others who are dealing with suffering. You are very right that some will suffer and be affected with suffering while many others are not. Also, when people have not felt the emotions of death close to them or even felt PTSD and depression, they cannot understand its effects on others. I guess it's just human nature, but it is a fact of life. Though we suffer, we eventually do move on, and though we never forget, those feelings become smaller so we can keep looking ahead. Thank you for your reactions and comments. They were excellent.

[@Asmaa-by2fb]

Engaging and impactful analysis...I think Auden wanted to say that the old masters,painters, are the only loyal and sinsitive by delineating the human dilemma while other like the indifferent people on each painting in the poem....thanks alot professor

[@BigV24]

so glad I discovered your channel during this period. look forward to going through the archives and for the videos that are to come!

[@MrYoav5]

As a teacher I found this super useful. Thank you!

[@sonampalmo3578]

You've certainly have given depth to a poem I have loved for years. My second favorite of Auden's is "In Praise of Limestone." It would be wonderful to hear your insights on it.

[@phillipbrooke9692]

What a gift that you share your expertise with us all. Fantastic!

[@LP-jz5ig]

I love your analysis , best way to understand what I’m reading. Thank you for your content !

[@XtinPrevails]

Thank you for this analysis! I am doing an English class online and we don't get any lectures. I am so glad I don't have to do everything from books alone since there are people like you out there! :) thanks again!

[@lsmith6008]

Thank you. What a beautiful poem.

[@krisyallowega5487]

I am so pleased that your insights popped up for me to view. After pondering this epic poem a specific Latin phrase seems appropriate. Momento mori, remember we die.

[@karanveersingh5442]

Thanks a lot. Loads of love for the great help you provide to the world

[@puppylover3128]

I love the insight and analysis you provide in each video!! Thanks to your videos, I am able to break down and analyze these wonderful poems! And thanks to your videos, I passed my British literature course with a high grade :)

[@user-nx1dx8sc5f]

Wooow that's realy good explain i loved the way how you are teaching with

[@aidamnejad5787]

Your analysis is awesome ❤👍

[@knowliterature]

...you really make things easy to understand...thank you so much ma'am .

[@kevinharrison3265]

Thank you. I love the richness of poetry.

[@bigloser3825]

Wow I’ve never seen like this explanation. Thanks for your great effort

[@samar1462]

Man has divided himself from nature, I think the poem beautifully captures the falsity of human experience, suffering and pleasure and all the rest of it is merely a construction of human mind, and is absent in truth, and shows him the light at the end of Plato's cave.

[@bellareid3488]

"Even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course" makes me think of the pandemic. Thanks for the video.

[@cece2497]

Thank you so much for this helpful explanation, Rebecca! Your explanation was very clear and it definitely made me understand this poem better. I don´t think anyone could´ve explained it better than you!

[@Acyutananda_yogamonk]

She's very good. I've seen other videos of hers. But here I think she missed or neglected the most central irony of the poem. Why did Auden single out "The Fall of Icarus," of all the paintings in the museum that met the description of life going on at a time of suffering? I think the key line is "For them it was not an important failure." Icarus was trying to fly close to the sun. He was seeking glory. An "Icarus complex" is a glory-seeking complex. Thus out of all the characters in all the paintings, he was the one who most wanted to be admired. who least wanted to fail, and least wanted life to go calmly on while he died.

[@manjariupadhyaya]

Your voice is so calm and comforting

[@kirsten2415]

thank you so much! this poem is a favourite of mine :)

[@reyannie7940]

Thank you for your insightful reading of the poem Musee Des Beaux Arts. However there is definitely a deeper, broader way way of not only looking at but also experiencing and processing inevitable suffering on one's life.

[@SixMinuteScholar]

What a good insight! Thank you.

[@sundararaj9304]

Very informative, short and simple.

[@mohammadhaajibabaei3416]

Awesome! Thank you so much! ❤

[@christophergould995]

Rebekah,I would love you to review Larkins poems,especially Whitsun Weddings or Aubade

[@jeonsomi5429]

Very beautiful explanation of the poeme, thank you so much you made things easier for me!

[@jane1227jane]

Thank you for the analysis!! Very helpful. Hope you can do “The Reader Over My Shoulder” and “The Devil’s Advice to Story-tellers” by Robert Graves.

[@saraelkhalil]

OMG I really don't know to thank you madam. Incredible explanation💜👩‍🏫

[@viktoraceski8339]

Amazing analysis! Thank you!

[@viviananavas9994]

You should do an analysis on “Everything Stuck to Him” by Raymond Carver

[@kyleso9089]

great job, your video's have helped me understanding literature more and helps me break it down

[@kevinharrison3265]

I love a nice smart lady who loves poetry!👍🙏🥰

[@kimberlycamacho5748]

very helpful I'm working on this essay this video did help a lot thanks

[@adithyarajesh2007]

Thank you Ma'am ❤

[@Stephanie-rg5ln]

Superb analysis as always! Rebecca, you should definitely read "Death In Venice" by Thomas Mann. It is simply the most beautifully written prose that I have ever read. Hope you're safe during this quarantine!

[@katejones235]

love u quen thanks 4 the viddddd

[@Snow_flowers93]

Thank you very much

[@DubaiGuy08]

We can imagine Icarus' father, Daedalus, watching in horror as his son flew too high in the sky, then plunged to his death in the sea. In the Greek mythology, Daedalus is a master craftsman, who devises a way for him and his son to escape prison in Crete: to fly away, wearing wings made of wood and feathers, glued together with wax. Daedalus warned his son not to fly too high, where the sun might melt the wax, or too low, where moisture from the sea might make the wings water-logged. Tragically, his son didn't listen. I don't think Bruegel captured the father at all in his painting, but I think Auden does in his poem, movingly and powerfully at that, i.e. in reference to the aged. We can imagine Daedalus suffering terribly, through old age, at losing his son, perhaps feeling unmitigated guilt at building those flawed wings. Auden wrote this poem in December 1938, so I agree the "miraculous birth" refers to Christmas Day and the birth of Jesus. But those two lines "How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting | For the miraculous birth..." may mean the Christian wait for the second coming (re-birth) of Jesus. Auden may also be empathizing with Daedalus' unending sorrow and unfulfillable longing for his son to come back (be re-born). All of that said, it's a wonderful read, Rebecca, and a heartfelt interpretation of a heartbreaking poem.

[@kyleso9089]

you should do an analysis on "The Man in the Black Suit", KING

[@literarysymposium8746]

Thank you mam. Its a really good video ❣️ can you also provide text of the poem in the description box please 😊💐

[@newdimension5072]

Excellent

[@surakshithprabhu2097]

Excellent explanation

[@arupdey2527]

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 torturer's 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

[@yeahbuddy101]

How does the diction in stanzas 1 and 2 (lines 1-9) help develop Auden’s perspective?

[@TalismanTopG-]

French people like me would call it "Miuzah deh bu zah"

[@Pravakta93]

Wow nice explanation love from India

[@sarai3286]

Thank you, professor! :^)

[@matthewrichard1018]

Thank you so much!

[@sandyzhao2706]

love this!

[@julika7270]

great, thank you!

[@katicmatea7297]

Hey, could you do analysis of The blessed Damozel by Rossetti?

[@thingjabong9176]

Thank you❤

[@korahumor]

Thank you

[@Marduk-uu4nv]

Thanks.

[@litomito5154]

thanks

[@christopherpike7163]

How can a professor not talk about the fact that this poem was written in December 1938, when the Europeans were trying to appease Hitler who was about the unleash hell on most of Europe? Shortly before his 1938 trip to Brussels where he saw the painting, Auden spent six months in China during the Second Sino-Japanese War and several weeks at the frontline of the Spanish Civil War. This poem can be seen as a reaction to the bloodshed that he witnessed during his travels and a premonition of the horrors of World War II that many seem to be oblivious to while going about their daily lives. Weak analysis!

[@kevinharrison3265]

Suffering. So ubiquitous, so banal..