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Muse des Beaux Arts (poem)From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaThe Auden collection where the poem first appeared in book formLandscape with the Fall of Icarusin the Muse des Beaux ArtsMuse des Beaux Arts (French for Museum of Fine Arts) is a poem written byW. H. Audenin December 1938 while he was staying inBrussels,BelgiumwithChristopher Isherwood.1It was first published under the title Palais des beaux arts (Palace of Fine Arts) in the Spring 1939 issue ofNew Writing, amodernistmagazine edited byJohn Lehmann.2It next appeared in the collected volume of verseAnother Time(New York: Random House, 1940), which was followed four months later by the English edition (London: Faber and Faber, 1940).3The poems title derives from theMuses Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgiquein Brussels, famous for its collection ofEarly Netherlandish painting. Auden visited the Muse and would have seen a number of works by the Old Masters of his second line, includingPieter Bruegel the Elder(ca.15251569).Contentshide 1Synopsis 2Bruegels influence 3Cultural legacy 4References 5External linksSynopsiseditAudensfree versepoem is divided into two parts, the first of which describes scenes of suffering and dreadful martyrdom which rarely break into our quotidian routines: While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully / along. The second half of the poem refers, through the poetic device ofekphrasis, to the paintingLandscape with the Fall of Icarus(ca.1560s), at the time thought to be byBruegel, but now usually regarded as an early copy of a lost work. Audens description allows us to visualise this specific moment and instance of the indifference of the world to suffering, how everything turns away / Quite leisurely from the disaster . the white legs disappearing into the green. The disaster in question is the fall ofIcarus, caused by his flying too close to the sun and melting his waxen wings.Auden achieves much in the poem, not only with his long and irregular lines, rhythms, and vernacular phrasing (dogs go on with their doggy life), but also with this balance between what appear to be general examples About suffering and a specific example of a mythical boys fall into the sea. Auden scholars and art historians have suggested that the first part of the poem also relies on at least two additional paintings by Bruegel which Auden would have seen in the same second-floor gallery of the museum.4These identifications are based on a not quite exact, but nonetheless evocative, series of correspondences between details in the paintings and Audens language. However, none show a martyrdom in the usual sense, suggesting that other works are also evoked. The Bruegels are presented below in the order in which they appear to relate Audens lines.Bruegels influenceeditlines 58:Bruegel,The Census at Bethlehem, 1566BruegelsThe Census at Bethlehem(catalogued at the Muse as Le dnombrement de Bethlem)5of 1566 was acquired by the Muse in 1902. Scott Horton noted that it would be a mistake to only look to the Icarus painting when explaining Audens poem, for The bulk of the poem is clearly about a different painting, in fact its the museums prize possession: The Census at Bethlehem.6The painting depicts Mary and Joseph center right, she on a donkey bundled up for the snow of BruegelsFlanders, and he leading with a red hat and long carpenters saw over his shoulder. They are surrounded by many other people: someone else . eating or opening a window or just walking dully / along.7And there are children On a pond at the edge of the wood spinning tops and lacing on their skates.lines 913:Bruegel,The Massacre of the Innocents, 1565-7The Massacre of the Innocents(catalogued at the Muse as Le Massacre des Innocents)8is a copy byPieter Bruegel the Younger(15651636) of his fathers original dated to 15657 (illustrated). The Muse acquired it in 1830. The scene depicted, again in a wintry Flanders landscape, is recounted in Matthew 2:1618:Herod the Great, when told that a king would be born to the Jews, ordered the Magi to alert him when the king was found. The Magi, warned by an angel, did not and so, When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under. In relation to theCensuspainting then we can see why the children of Audens poem did not specially want it the miraculous birth to happen.Both this scene and the earlier are used by Bruegel to make a political comment on theSpanish Habsburgrulers of Flanders at the time (note the Habsburg coat of arms on the right front of the main building in theCensusand the Spanish troops in red inThe Massacrearresting peasants and knocking down doors).citation neededWith respect to Audens language we can see here the dreadful martyrdom must run its course (the innocent boys of Herods wrath are traditionally considered the first of the Christian martyrs). We can see five of those dogs of Audens poem going about their business and an approximation of the torturers horse / Scratches its innocent behind on a tree. Kinney claims “Only one torturers horse stands near a tree, however, and he is unable to rub against it because another soldier, with a battering ram, is standing between the horse and the tree . Yet this must be the horse Auden has in mind, since it is the only torturers horse in Bruegels work, and the only painting with horses near trees.”9lines 1421:Landscape with the Fall of Icarus(catalogued at the Muse as “La Chute dIcare”)8was acquired in 1912. This is the only known example of Bruegels use of a scene from mythology, and he bases his figures and landscape quite closely on the myth ofDaedalusand his sonIcarusas told byOvidin hisMetamorphoses8, 183235. The painting which Auden saw was thought until recently to be by Pieter Brueghel the Elder, though it is still believed to be based on a lost original of his.10The painting portrays several men and a ship peacefully performing daily activities in a charming landscape. While this occurs, Icarus is visible in the bottom right hand corner of the picture, his legs splayed at absurd angles, drowning in the water. There is also a Flemish proverb (of the sort imaged in other works by Bruegel): And the farmer continued to plough. (En de boer . hij ploegde voort) pointing out the ignorance of people to fellow mens suffering.11Cultural legacyeditSome years after Auden wrote this poem,William Carlos Williamswrote a poem titled Landscape with the Fall of Icarus about the same painting.This poem and the paintingLandscape with the Fall of Icarusappear side-by-side 22 minutes into the 1976 film,The Man Who Fell to Earth, starringDavid Bowie.追随者 FollowerMy father worked with a horse plough,His shoulders globed like a full sail strungBetween the 1)shafts and the 2)furrow.The horses strained at his clicking tongue.父亲赶马，犁地耕田，鼓起双肩，犹如满帆撑悬，航扬车辕、土垄之间。喀哒喊声，驱马奋力向前。An expert. He would set the wingAnd fit the bright-4)pointed 5)sock.The sod rolled over without breaking.At the headrig, with a single pluck.行家里手，装好犁翼，配上犁头，尖锐铮亮。翻土层卷，整整齐齐。器械那头，一拽绳缰。Of 8)reins, the sweating team turned roundAnd back into the land. His eyeNarrowed and angled at the ground,Mapping the furrow exactly.汗马转向，回踏田地。此时父亲轻眯一眼，定角睨视前方土地，精确测绘犁沟距间。I stumbled in his 9)hobnailed 10)wake,Fell sometimes o