Sometimes I like to look through old chats and emails from this time last year. It's amazing how incredibly naive and stupid I was then. Just amazing.

Now everyone's starting to figure out what's going on....

... and it's great. :)

"Don't worry," she said, "my parents like you." And this time, she wasn't lying.

That awesome moment when I realized...

In the spirit of actually following up on things...

Hey guys. I figured I'd actually get you that poem analysis for my oral commentary that I promised. I pulled it together the night before it was due, and it could do with some tweaking, but the main points are all here, that's what matters. (Also... I'm much too lazy at the moment to bother fixing it up now...) Hope you enjoy!

In the poem, “Musee des Beaux Artes,” by W.H. Auden, the speaker explains that the Old Masters, 16^th and 17^th century artists, understood the truth of human suffering. Auden gives a biblical allusion to the birth of Christ, and then ends the poem with a direct artistic and classical allusion describing Bruegel’s painting depicting the fall of Icarus.   

Through visual imagery depicting quotidian life and the juxtaposition of biblical, classical, and artistic allusions, Auden depicts human selfishness and indifference to others’ plights to illustrate that suffering is neither epic nor heroic.

As I read the poem, be sure to look out for the aforementioned biblical and classical allusions, as well as visual imagery depicting daily human life.

“Musee des Beaux Artes”        W. H. Auden

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 specifically 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.

Key:

Normal, quotidian descriptions/connotations

Negative, unsightly connotations

Biblical allusion

Artistic/classical allusion

The poem was named “Musee des Beaux Artes,” after the museum that Breugel’s, “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus,” was housed in. I will discuss Breugel’s painting in a moment.

This poem is 21 lines of free verse. Free verse is poetry that is free of structured verse but not free of other poetic elements.

There is a fair amount of inverted syntax throughout the poem – for example, in lines 1-2 – to draw attention to the more important words and phrases such as “suffering,” “Old Masters,” and “how well.”

The speaker describes suffering as “human” in line 2 of the poem. The word “human” connotes a certain degree of averageness and normality, conveying that suffering is not a dramatic or heroic event. Rather, suffering is portrayed as quotidian, as demonstrated by the mundane, daily activities listed in line 4. By describing people doing uninteresting, ordinary things while supposedly heroic events are occurring, Auden reveals that the world doesn’t stop when bad things happen. Suffering occurs at a human scale. Life goes on, and people continue to go about their daily lives.

Auden proceeds to make a biblical allusion to the “miraculous birth” of Christ. Auden juxtaposes the rapt interest of “the aged” who are “reverently […] waiting” with the self-absorbed indifference of the “children […] skating on a pond.”

In line 9, “they” refers back to the “Old Masters.” This biblical allusion serves as Auden’s first example of the Old Masters’ understanding of suffering. The Old Masters “never forgot” that Christ’s martyrdom inevitably happened unseen and unlamented by a majority of people.

The words “corner” and “untidy” bear a slightly negative, unsightly connotation. Christ died a martyr out of the sight of others, explaining the lack of grandeur of the description of the setting in which his martyrdom occurred.

The repetition of the word “dog” in the phrase “the dogs go on with their doggy life” illustrates that nothing about the dogs’ behavior has changed at all. The martyrdom has little to no effect on them.   

Similarly, the juxtaposition of the mention of the “dreadful martyrdom” of Christ with the mundane, commonplace thing that the horse doing – that is, “scratch[ing] its […] behind on a tree.”

The depiction of the children, the dogs, and the horse’s indifferent responses is an example of irony since the biblical allusion to the martyrdom of Christ is otherwise presented as being quite dramatic and heroic.

Auden proceeds to give a similar second example of the Old Masters’ understanding of suffering. Auden makes an artistic allusion to a Breugel painting that depicts a direct classical allusion to the fall of Icarus. In Greek mythology, Icarus’ and his father, Daedalus, attempt to escape from Crete using wings that Daedalus constructed out of feathers secured with wax. Daedalus warned Icarus not fly too close to the sun, but Icarus ignored his fathers’ warnings and flew too close, the wax melted, and he fell into the sea and drowned.

Though the full title of Breugel’s painting is not including in the poem, I think it’s important to explain its significance, which furthers Auden’s explanation of human suffering. The painting is not titled “The Fall of Icarus,” rather, it is titled, “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus.” The use of the word “with” implies that Icarus is not the focus of the painting. The fall occurs but does not take all the attention.   

Indeed, Icarus is definitely not the focus of the painting. As you can see, Icarus is drowning in the lower right-hand corner of the painting. The focus is on the “ploughman” mentioned in line 15 of the poem, revealing once again that human suffering is quotidian.

The juxtaposition of “quite leisurely” with “disaster” illustrates that the fall would not be as disastrous or important for humans in real life as it was when it was described in the classical story.

The fact that the ploughman carries on with his work after possibly hearing Icarus’ “forsaken cry” reveals that suffering only really affects people on a more serious scale when it affects them personally and upsets their own daily lives. Others’ suffering is “not an important failure.”

The sun is described as shining as it “had to.” The use of the words “had to” implies that the sun was only shining on the drowning Icarus because it was in the sky at the time, not to aggrandize or put a spotlight on Icarus’ plight.

Auden references the “expensive delicate ship” shown here, which, as you can see, also draws more focus than the drowning Icarus. Despite having seen the fall, which is described by Auden – perhaps sarcastically – as “something amazing,” the ship “had somewhere to get to and sailed […] on,” not pausing and stopping to focus on the supposedly heroic suffering of Icarus. The people on the ship continue with their daily lives and their own personal plans, demonstrating that it is human nature to only care about suffering or worries that are ones’ own. Even then, suffering is rarely overtly dramatized, since it is generally accepted that suffering is a natural, inevitable part of human existence.

Icarus’ fall was dramatized by the Greek story, but downplayed by both the Old Masters’ paintings and Auden’s descriptions of people, creating the same irony present in the earlier biblical allusion.

Again, Auden reveals that the world doesn’t stop when bad things happen. The classical belief that everyone must aggrandize the sorrow of one person’s success or one person’s suffering was challenged by the beliefs of the Old Masters and by Auden. Life doesn’t stop when Christ is martyred; and life doesn’t stop when Icarus falls. Suffering only affects individuals on a heroic or dramatic scale when they are the ones experiencing the suffering. People are rarely deeply affected by others’ suffering, and when they are, it is often still for strong personal reasons. In conclusion, Auden alludes to the fact that the Old Masters’ disagreed with the Greek notion of suffering being heroic. Through the overwhelmingly indifferent human responses to suffering present in well known biblical and classical allusions, Auden illustrates that suffering is human and quotidian and is not to be dramatized or aggrandized. 

Fun stuff.

I'm finally going to go see The Artist tomorrow night. Super excited!

Beware the Ides of March!

Happy 15th, everyone.

Mantra of the Moment.

"Less is oftentimes more"

That's what I've been reminding myself again and again as I prepare this oral commentary. One of my oral presentations last year got a little wordy and rambling... so I definitely learned the lesson that less is more. In other words, K.I.S.S. Keep it simple, stupid. I wholeheartedly agree.

I got this. Must finish commentary. Then off to other schtuffs.

Please enjoy this wonderful poem. I might post my notes for my oral commentary for this eventually. Stay tuned. I'm sure you'd be excited to see those... Don't see why you wouldn't be. (Can I win an award for longest post title yet?)

"Musee des Beaux Artes"

W. H. Auden

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 specifically 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.

Love it.

I'm almost positive an instrumental version of this was played in Stranger than Fiction. Regardless, enjoy this song and this pic of Will Ferrell.

Also... Stranger Than Fiction (2006) IMDB And... super duper good cover on Will Ferrell's part. I love this scene.

 

It's Britney, bitch.

I know that this song is already two years old, but I can't help but love these lyrics. Don't judge.

"If I said I want your body now / Would you hold it against me?" Classic. How clever. How can you not love this?

Just a thought.

In person > carrier pigeon > letter > Skype call > phone call > texting > emailing > IMing. Always.

Sia "You've Changed"

This song always puts a huge smile on my face.

Today :)

Why hello there mutual attraction, it appears I've finally found you.

...

http://www.waste.uk.com/ 

Hey guys, I'm going to Radiohead on June 3rd. If the website is right and this is the merch that'll be sold at the concert, I'll most likely end up getting either this tee or this hoody. (Be jealous.)

Also... side note - but concert related - I just went to see the Black Keys on March 9, this past Friday. (That's right. Be even more jealous.) They did a fantastic job, seeing as they are amazing live and just wonderful in general.

BLACK KEYS VERIZON CENTER MARCH 9TH 2012 SET LIST

Also, I am in love with Dan Auerbach. He is epic and incredibly sexy. Any time a ginger beard is involved, you know things are bound to be good.

Things are going wonderfully concert-wise for yours truly lately :)

My love life...

This song = my love life. Working on fixing that.

I'm feeling particular teenager-y today...

Sometimes I have one of those days when I realize exactly how much of an angst-ridden, feeling-ridden teenager I am. And since I am very different from all my other friends - in that I have neither a Facebook profile nor a tumblr - I only occasionally reveal said angst to the internet, just because doing so isn't my style... But yeah, that said... here's a playlist of some songs that really remind me of my quasi-ex-boyfriend - or more accurately, ex-quasi-boyfriend. I say ex-quasi-boyfriend because our relationship is much too complicated to ever explain. Anyway, hopefully someone out there will be able to relate. If not, just enjoy this nostalgic, relationship-retrospective playlist. I feel like such a teenager, posting my feelings to no one, and everyone. Has it ever struck anyone else how strange the world we're living in now is? You can't just feel things anymore without facing the urge to let everyone else know about it... I digress. I'll save that ironically hypocritical rant for later.

So here's that playlist...:

"Big Girls Don't Cry (Personal)" Fergie
"Animal" Ellie Goulding
"We Never Change" Coldplay
"Used to Be" Beach House
"Everyday" Vetiver
"Never Let Me Go" Florence + The Machine
"Waste" Foster the People
"Over It Over Again" She & Him
"Home" She & Him
"Me & You" She & Him 
"I Caught Myself" Paramore
"Your Biggest Mistake" Ellie Goulding
"Every Time You Go" Ellie Goulding
"Miss You" Foster the People
"Thieves" She & Him
"Us Against the World" Coldplay
"All I Need" Radiohead
"From Now On" The Features
"Ridin' In My Car" She & Him 
"Tighten Up" The Black Keys
"This Love (Will Be Your Downfall)" Ellie Goulding 
"Don't Look Back" She & Him
"Rolling in the Deep" ADELE
"Lingering Still" She & Him
"Heartbreaker (feat. John Legend)" MSTRKRFT
"No Light, No Light" Florence + The Machine