Week Six

This week, we are reading more of Auden's poetry. On the Open Forum, I posted "Funeral Blues" because it reminds me of a recent death. My sister just lost her husband after forty years of marriage. Although he took chemotherapy, my brother-in-law suffered greatly for thirteen months before dying of colon cancer.

As I read Auden's "Funeral Blues," I am amazed at its timely message. My brother-in law's funeral is tomorrow, and I will be thinking these words, "Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come." It is strange how the world seems to march on, regardless of death or pain. But my sister feels just like the speaker who says, "Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone." She too thought "love would last forever."

But time stands still for no one. It continues on without our consent. Grief is a strange thing.

Just when we think we are better, something triggers a memory and pain attacks again.

It could be the smell of coffee or a favorite song that stirs up sad emotions. I know there are stages that one must go through, but it is a painful process. Nothing seems to hurry it along because grief takes its own sweet time.

Everyone handles the proces of grief in their own way because it is a personal experience. My sister gave her eight-year-old grandson a cap that belonged to her late husband. The young boy commented, "Wow! It smells just like Grandpa." He was so proud of the ball cap that he went home and put it in a plastic bag so he could keep Grandpa's smell forever.

Auden writes:

He was my North, my South, my East and West,

My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

These lines in "Funeral Blues" suggest that the beloved was the speaker's muse and his whole world. Regardless of which way he turned, his beloved was there. Even though it seems like a perfect relationship, it ends. Consequently, the speaker is sad. I find that Auden is an awesome poet and his poetry always teaches me to see things in new ways.

"Musee des Beaux Arts" is also an interesting poem because it was influenced by a painting, Brueghel's Icarus. I like the line: "About suffering they were never wrong, / The Old Masters: how well they understood / Its human position." Auden writes about children and old people in opposing ways. It seems the elderly are "passionately waiting" while children are "skating." The children ignore disasters and martyrs and are content to live life.

Landscape with the Fall of Icarus by Pieter Brueghel

Auden refers to other paintings in this poem. It is amazing how an artist is influenced by another artist's work. Sometimes when I look at a painting, I also feel inspired. After all, the artist was a beginner at one time and probably studied the "Old Masters." I took an online class, Women in Art, and learned many things about art and paintings. The canvas is similar to a text that can be read. Lighting, brush strokes, placement, and subject matter are all important elements that must be considered when observing a painting.

Once we learn to read a text, regardless if it is a poem or a painting, we can understand it. Inspired by "The Fall of Icarus," Auden explores the indifference of people to death and the continuance of life in "Musee des Beaux Arts." He takes away the romance of tragedy and suffering and presents it as an everyday event to demonstrate the apathetic state mankind has fallen into.

Poetry allows me to see things that I never seen before, which I find exciting. It is a personal adventure that gives me the freedom to explore a new world and set my own rules or have none at all. As a reader, I bring my views and opinions to the text and find a brand new interpretation.