"Musee Des Beaux Arts" by W. H. Auden

The poem Musee Des Beaux Arts by W. H. Auden is a poem about human suffering and is best seen in context when viewing the "Fall of Icarus" painting by Breughal. The basic theme of the poem is a response to the tragedy of the death of Icarus represented in the painting by Breughal. The opening life "About Suffering, they were never wrong" already sets the overall message of the poem: that suffering is all …

…how the lives of ordinary people still go on. The overall structure of "Musee des Beaux arts" is set in free verse, meaning that the poem is basically 'free' of any regular rhythmic or rhyming patterns etc. The choice of the free verse style and the lack of structure in the poem are effective in conveying and re-iterating the message of the poem - that suffering is an inevitable and accepted part of our lives.