As I type these words there is suffering all around: children dying of hunger, people dying at the hands of some other entity, and so many more atrocities to mention; yet I continue on living my life without thought or regard of the suffering of others. Auden’s poem “Musée des Beaux Arts” illustrates the apathy of humanity toward others’ suffering. Especially when he references Brueghel's Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, which shows a beautiful city in the background and all the characters doing just what they are supposed to be doing; all the while Icarus falls from the sky and is drowning.
The world continues to turn and what can we do to stop the suffering? Do we acknowledge the suffering? Do we fight the suffering? I do not know. But Auden is saying that we should not ignore it. In the poem line 6, “For the miraculous birth…,” and line 10, “…the dreadful martyrdom must run its course…” reference the birth and death of Jesus and his suffering and death for our sins. Without this suffering there would be no Christianity to save us from ourselves.
To quote Dr. Leo F. Buscaglia Ph. D. (b. 1924, d. 1998), “The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing, and becomes nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn and feel and change and grow and love and live.” We need to embrace suffering to become better than we are now. Without recognizing that suffering exists, we live a shell of an existence and only go through the motions or fill the void with material effects and become so completely out of touch with those around us (look at politics). Auden trying to shake the foundations and wake us and open our eyes to the suffering that surrounds us, WAKE UP!!!!!!! Can’t you smell the suffering, the suffering that surrounds you?
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