Analysis of Wystan Hugh Auden’s Poetry

In addition, the contrast In words used within the poem (“Innocent behind”) are used to Juxtapose how W. H. Aden has put the Idea of Europe practically Ignoring the Holocaust with the Cirrus disaster – which is used to illustrate Addend’s opinions and views of what was happening during the asses in Second World War Britain. ‘Musse des Beaux Arts’ includes variations of language devices. The use of sibilance in the poem, “disappearing… Passionately… Sun shone”, highlights the contrast of the mood In Addend’s prose.
This makes it clear that the tone of the poem vanes throughout. For Instance, the first stanza opens with a drabber opening (“About suffering”) yet ends with the juxtaposition “innocent behind”. This shows the dissimilarities in the mood throughout the poem. Aden tends to use fronting to get his point across quicker. “About suffering they were never wrong, The Old Masters; how well they understood”. This sentence adds an effect by being grounded – It has deliberately been put back-to-front. It gets the theme of the poem across quickly and gives us judgment on the key themes.
Therefore, it announces the theme of the poem. However, one could argue that the theme of the poem is not about war. Alternatively, one can see how the poem Is about religion and Jesus – hence the reference to suffering. The mention of “martyrdom” links with how Jesus was believed to have died Tort our sly. The structure of the poem is very irregular. The first stanza is a lot longer than the second stanza. This is because Aden wants to state his case before he mentions what the poem is about. “On a pond at the edge of the wood: they never forgot”.

The SE of enjambment on the sentence highlights the continuation of the poem. Aden is Just setting up his hypothesis and uses both enjambment and end stopping to conjure up the idea of using the second verse as a quicker, punchier stanza. In conclusion, Addend’s ‘Musse des Beaux Arts’ identifies many themes and uses historical context to summarize his own view on Nazi Germany during the time of the poem’s composition. By using language and structural devices in an irregular way, he is able to highlight the contrast in tone and imagery throughout the text.