The Musee de Beaux Arts

The poem is about the death of hope. Auden is distraught over the deaths in WWII. The soldiers of WWII were teenagers. To have 55 million children dead is an act of pure genocide. To Auden the fact that people let this happen means that the world is an ugly place. Art is a thing of beauty and humans don't deserve it because of the ugly things we do. Auden uses The Fall of Icarus to …

…you will see the suffering it will hit you but you have to prepare for the hit and move on. Once you see the suffering then maybe you will see how wrong you were and then maybe people will start to save Icarus. If you can find it in your heart to save Icarus then you have the ability to see art and to Auden you are deserving to enter The Musee de Beaux Arts.