I was in Chick-Fil-A this morning working on my English assignment when I had a sort of revelation. I was reading this poem entitled "Musee des Beaux Arts" by W. H. Auden. At first glance, this poem may not seem to be that interesting. But, being an English student, I had to tear apart the poem and write a brief analysis/reaction to the poem and post it on BlackBoard.
Normally these types of assignments are routine. You find a couple of things that stick out in the poem, write about them, and post your response. But in this case, the message of the poem really hit home for me.
This poem was about suffering, and how humans respond to it. It was inspired by Brueghel's Icarus, a painting of the famous Greek myth of Icarus. In painting, Icarus is shown falling into the sea, his wax wings having melted. As Icarus is drowning, the plowman in the field simply ignores Icarus and the ships in the harbor pay him no attention. Auden writes about this ability of humans to ignore suffering in his poem. He writes of how people continue on with their lives amidst the suffering in the world. For the text of the poem and the picture that inspired it, click here. Spend a few moments reading the poem and maybe you'll start to see the deeper meaning of the poem. It took me a few read-throughs, but it finally sunk it. Let me switch gears and tell you a little story about what happened this week.
I found out the other day that my uncle died. He had been struggling to fight lung cancer, and unfortunately, lost his battle. He left behind his wife (my aunt), two daughters, and a son. His son and one of his daughters will be graduating from college this year. His other daughter is still in high school. He won't get to see her graduate. I went to the viewing and funeral with my family this week, and it was quite sad. My uncle wasn't that old, and even worse, his youngest daughter is about my age. It really put things in perspective. It's not every day that you go to a funeral for your friend (or cousin's) father.
As I look back on this experience, I realize how Auden's poem and my uncle's funeral have a lot in common. If you've ever experienced the death of a loved one, you know how it disrupts your life. It doesn't matter whether the death was unexpected or not - it affects everyone. For my uncle's funeral, my cousins flew in from all parts of the country to pay their respects. They postponed meetings, took days off work, missed classes, and flew several hours to support my uncle's family. But tomorrow they will return to their normal lives. Sure, they were probably affected by the loss, but nonetheless they must continue living.
And it's even worse for the family of the person who died. To them, it seems like their entire world seems to stop, but yet the rest of the world keeps moving forward. It seems impossible that amidst all of this suffering people could continue on with their lives. As we laid my uncle to rest in the cemetary, I could hear cars drive by on the road. Whoever was in those cars was continuing on with their daily activities, probably going out to lunch or running errands at the grocery store. You feel helpless and sad, yet you must continue forward.
That's all I really have to say. Auden's poem just made me think of the emotions I've felt at the many funerals I have been too, and it put my uncle's funeral in a new perspective. If you want to share your thoughts, go ahead. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has felt this way during the rought patches of life.
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