Auden's Museum of Fine Art
ENG 270.8328
July 16, 2008
Auden 's Museum of Fine Arts
There are many people who cannot help but to wonder the meanings of life and everything it brings us. Some wait for meanings to come to them, while others seek meanings. Whether one seeks or waits he will find that meanings are influenced by myth, history, experience, events and proven facts. Many poets use history or myth to tell their own stories or express their own points of view on certain topics. W.H. Auden was born in England in 1907, where he grew up to become publicly active in the 1930 's poetic revolution. In the Canberra Times the obituary reports that he was a , "keen-eyed reporter on Midlands 's foundries or Iceland glaciers of Chinese wars, martini- sipping New York sophisticate, Christian mystic, semi-reluctant gay icon and camp gossip, Mandarin expatriate in Austria and Italy, apostle of friendship and domesticity: Auden wore many social masks, all authentic, over his sixty-six productive years" (A 14). During the "poetic revolution," he wrote a poem, "Spain", about "the conscious acceptance of guilt in the necessary murder"(A 14) in response to the Spanish Civil War and was forced to flee England due to his refusal to join the army. Also in his time, Auden worked for a film company where he writing scripts which expressed his political views and concluded that a director 's position held more authority. Auden was really a man concerned about authority and it was difficult for him to get his due because of his gay sexual orientation. He traveled all around the world in search of authority and gained respect through his poetry. While visiting Brussels, Belgium, he saw Breughel’s "Fall of Icarus", which inspired him to write the famous poem "Musee des Beaux Arts". The Fall of Icarus is based on the myth of Icarus and his father, Daedalus ' escape from Crete. Both Icarus and his father were imprisoned on the island of Minos for a long time and then one day
July 16, 2008
Auden 's Museum of Fine Arts
There are many people who cannot help but to wonder the meanings of life and everything it brings us. Some wait for meanings to come to them, while others seek meanings. Whether one seeks or waits he will find that meanings are influenced by myth, history, experience, events and proven facts. Many poets use history or myth to tell their own stories or express their own points of view on certain topics. W.H. Auden was born in England in 1907, where he grew up to become publicly active in the 1930 's poetic revolution. In the Canberra Times the obituary reports that he was a , "keen-eyed reporter on Midlands 's foundries or Iceland glaciers of Chinese wars, martini- sipping New York sophisticate, Christian mystic, semi-reluctant gay icon and camp gossip, Mandarin expatriate in Austria and Italy, apostle of friendship and domesticity: Auden wore many social masks, all authentic, over his sixty-six productive years" (A 14). During the "poetic revolution," he wrote a poem, "Spain", about "the conscious acceptance of guilt in the necessary murder"(A 14) in response to the Spanish Civil War and was forced to flee England due to his refusal to join the army. Also in his time, Auden worked for a film company where he writing scripts which expressed his political views and concluded that a director 's position held more authority. Auden was really a man concerned about authority and it was difficult for him to get his due because of his gay sexual orientation. He traveled all around the world in search of authority and gained respect through his poetry. While visiting Brussels, Belgium, he saw Breughel’s "Fall of Icarus", which inspired him to write the famous poem "Musee des Beaux Arts". The Fall of Icarus is based on the myth of Icarus and his father, Daedalus ' escape from Crete. Both Icarus and his father were imprisoned on the island of Minos for a long time and then one day
Cited: Auden, W.H. "Musee des Beaux Arts". Perrine 's Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry. 12th ed. Ed. Thomas R. Arp and Greg Johnson. Boston: Thomson/ Wadsdsworth, 2008 pg. 344 Hsu, Hsuan L. "Auden 's MUSEE DES BEAUX ARTS." Explicator 57.3 (Spring99 1999): 166. Academic Research Premier. EBSCO. La Guardia Community College Library, Long Island City, NY. 14 July 2008 . "W.H.Auden: Poet and Prophet." Canberra Times [Australia]: Lexis Nexis. La Guardia Community College, Long Island City. 24 Feb. 2007: A14 "A BOY FALLING OUT OF THE SKY." Literary Cavalcade 53.2 (Oct.2000): 4. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. La Guardia Community College Library, Long Island City, NY. 14 July 2008 .