Practice Exam Analysis and Respose

                                             "Mus'ee des Beaux Arts" By W.H. Auden



Pre-writing:

                  1. Subject: death,dying, human tragedy and the harsh fact that life continues to move on.
                  2. Relationship between the poem and the art: the painting illustrates life going on on a street while a boy plunges into the ocean. Auden is writing this poem based on a painting "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus".
                  3. Stanza: the stanza flows through out the poem, sentences are short.
                  4. Diction: the poem is easy to read, punctuation makes the poem flow with ease. The author uses common words most readers can understand.
                  5. Imagery: I can see a clear picture in my mind of the young, old, animals, and surrounding scenery of this poem.
                  6. Tone: to me, the tone is very matter of fact, sad, but honest and truthful of life and society. Tone is even and does not change.


                             My response to this poem is that the author is speaking of tragedy, dying and death. Another very clear message is the hard truth that despite all this suffering, life will still go on. As a society we will continue to go about life's daily tasks. The writer makes me think about how as humans we are in some way complaisant to all the ill fate around us. From birth we are all dying, we are not invincible. Tragedy can linger at any age of life and the world will still go on, society will keep moving forward and work will be done.

                              There is no escaping the fact that death is inevitable. Every living being will experience suffering, death and tragedy. Clearly, we can see suffering everyday, but we keep moving to the beat of our busy lives inching closer to our own demise.

                             The author writes in line (3) "It's human position; how it takes place." I feel this is referring to death, when it will happen or how it will happen. Stanza (4) reads "While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along.", this sentence gives a clear picture of how people just keep moving along never knowing of the suffering or tragedy that has happened or that will happen. A chilling reference to this in the poem stanza (7) "Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating on a pond at the edge of the wood.''

                            We see suffering everyday it comes in various forms: loss of a loved one, a homeless person on the street, brutal crimes that are spoken and shown to us through the media. The author illustrates how we as a society reflect stanza (9) "They never forget." Stanza (14) and (15) gives a picture perfect reference to life just going on despite all the suffering we see in the world today,"Everything turns away quite leisurely from disaster."

                           Life  keeps moving along no matter what happens to us or another, some may choose to look the other way as detailed in the poem stanza (15) the ploughman hears the splash and the boy's cry, but goes about his daily work routine and everyone else around him keeps moving along as well, as referenced in stanza (20) the ship kept sailing calmly by despite the boy falling into the sea. This can be true of many people who bare witness to suffering, death and tragedy. We all deal with death and dying differently.

                          In conclusion to the analysis and response to this poem we all will face death, tragedy and suffering at some point in our lives. We will all deal with it in many different ways, no two people share the same personal feelings or thoughts . Every being will react differently, death is an intimate personal journey. We are all dying, yet we are all living. Striving to get to the next chapter in life, busily going about our daily business.