Musée des Beaux Arts Suffering Quotes Page 2
(line)
| Quote #4 the ploughman may |
The "forsaken" nature of this fall is really what changes an unfortunate accident into outright suffering. Too often, it seems, other peoples' attention can turn a nasty accident into a lucky break – or not.
| Quote #5 the white legs disappearing into the green |
There's a certain casualness to this description – even though we'll eventually get the whole story, Auden's speaker treats it with the same nonchalance that he imagines for the other figures in the painting.
| Quote #6 Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky, (19) |
Yup. That's bad, all right. But notice how Auden always tempers his descriptions of awful things with strange adjectives? They make disaster seem spectacular – if not outright exciting. Which is why we say that there's a healthy dose of irony in his perspective, come to think of it.
