Poetry Slam!: "Musée des Beaux Arts" by W.H. Auden

In this poem, the speaker discusses the painting "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus," observing that an individual's suffering often makes little impression on the everyday lives of others. The poem employs the rhetorical device ekphrasis, a verbal description of a work of art.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. suffering
    feelings of mental or physical pain
    About suffering they were never wrong,
    The old Masters: how well they understood
    Its human position...
  2. old master
    a great European painter prior to 19th century
    About suffering they were never wrong,
    The old Masters: how well they understood
    Its human position...
  3. dull
    so lacking in interest as to cause mental weariness
    ...how it takes place
    While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along
  4. reverent
    feeling or showing profound respect or veneration
    How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
    For the miraculous birth, there always must be
    Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
    On a pond at the edge of the wood
  5. passionate
    having or expressing strong emotions
    How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
    For the miraculous birth, there always must be
    Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
    On a pond at the edge of the wood
  6. miraculous
    having the character of an amazing or wonderful occurrence
    How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
    For the miraculous birth, there always must be
    Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
    On a pond at the edge of the wood
  7. dreadful
    causing fear or terror
    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.
  8. martyrdom
    death because of a person's adherence of a faith or cause
    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.
  9. tidy
    marked by order and cleanliness in appearance or habits
    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.
  10. innocent
    free from evil or guilt
    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.
  11. leisurely
    in an unhurried way or at one's convenience
    In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
    Quite leisurely from the disaster...
  12. ploughman
    a man who plows
    ...the ploughman may
    Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
    But for him it was not an important failure
  13. forsake
    leave someone who needs or counts on you; leave in the lurch
    ...the ploughman may
    Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
    But for him it was not an important failure
  14. delicate
    developed with extreme subtlety
    ...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.
  15. amazing
    inspiring awe or admiration or wonder
    ...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.
Created on Wed Aug 02 16:45:33 EDT 2017 (updated Thu Oct 05 09:00:27 EDT 2017)

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