Question

About suffering they were never wrong,

The Old Masters: how well they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a
window or just walking dully along . . . .

In Brueghel’s Icarus, for instance: how
everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure . . .

–"Musée des Beaux Arts,"
W. H. Auden

How does the description of the ploughman, or farmer, in the last stanza relate to the idea of suffering conveyed in the first stanza?

It illustrates that one person's tragedy is a tragedy for all.
It illustrates that it is important to look out for others.
It emphasizes how one person's tragedy might not affect someone else.
It reflects the unity of people in times of need.

Answer 1

It emphasizes how one person's tragedy might not affect someone else.

Step-by-step explanation:

W. H. Auden's "Musée des Beaux Arts" is a poem about the Fall of Icarus as depicted in the painting with the title "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus" by Pieter Bruegel. It shows the exact scene where Icarus had fallen into the ocean/waters, with his legs above the water.

This painting from which Auden based his poem shows the fall of Icarus from the sky. The painting/ poem also describes how the other characters- the ploughman, the sailor, the shepherd may have noticed the fall. But they did not seem to care for it, minding their own business.

This description of the farmer in the last stanza of the poem relates to the idea that someone's suffering may be of no significance to another. This idea is also shown in the first stanza where the poet talks of "suffering....taking place while someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along..." This description of the farmer emphasizes the insignificance of someone's suffering to another person, how it doesn't have any effect someone else.

Answer 2

It emphasizes how one person's tragedy might not affect someone else.