1a. What facts will a "shilling life" give you?
2a. What do you know about the person described in stanza 2?
3a. What does the recipient of the letters do with them?
4a. Compare and contrast the two people described in this poem.
5a. Evaluate the life of the person described in stanza 1. Is it a happy life? a successful one? How else can you characterize it?
1b. How do you think most people react to such facts?
2b. Why are critics astonished that the subject loves this person?
3b. What does this action suggest about the feelings of the recipient for the writer of the letters?
4b. Does the recipient of the letters seem impressed by the explorer?
5b. Some say that letter writing is a lost art. Explain whether you agree with this position.
Sonnet. What does Auden use the stanza break for? How might you summarize the octave? the sestet? How does the rhyme scheme change between the octave and the sestet?
Irony. Who's Who is the title of a book that gives short biographies of famous or accomplished people. How is the title of Auden's poem ironic? What other examples of irony did you find in the poem?
1a. According to line 1, when does human suffering occur?
2a. What different reactions to a miraculous birth are described in lines 5-8?
3a. What reaction to Icarus's fall does Brueghel show?
4a. What kinds of things happen when tragedies or other amazing events occur?
5a. Evaluate Auden's idea that suffering often goes unnoticed because other things are happening. Does this idea reflect reality?
1b. Why were the Old Masters adept at depicting suffering?
2b. Why might young and old people react differently to the same event?
3b. What do these reactions suggest about human suffering or human compassion?
4b. Is Auden saying that other people suffer with us or that we generally suffer alone?
5b. Compare and contrast the theme of "Musée des Beaux Arts" with that of "Who's Who."
Theme. What is the theme of this poem?
Allusion. How do the allusions enforce the theme of the poem?
1. Write a letter to Auden telling him how you reacted to "Who's Who" or "Musée des Beaux Arts."
2. Auden tells the reader only a few facts about the second person in "Who's Who." Write a character sketch that provides details about this person's age, appearance, voice, background, personality, and daily life.
3. In "Musée des Beaux Arts," Auden draws on his reactions to a painting to express his emotions and thoughts about human suffering. Choose a photograph or painting that speaks to you. Write a poem or short essay in which you use the photo or painting as a springboard for your feelings or thoughts.
Functions of Sentences. Indicate whether each sentence below is declarative, exclamatory, interrogative, or imperative.
1. About suffering they were never wrong.
2. Were the Old Masters ever wrong about suffering?
3. Consider, for example, Pieter Brueghel's painting of Icarus.
4. Isn't it odd that the ship just sails blithely on?
5. The sailors on that ship must have seen something amazing!
Identifying Synonyms. Read the underlined words below. From the choices listed after each one, select the one most similar in meaning to the underlined word.
1. reverently click to select answer hopefully passionately worshipfully timidly
2. martyr click to select answer prophet follower sufferer rebel
3. innocent click to select answer calculating blameless experienced unknowing
4. giddy click to select answer friendly forceful sick dizzy
5. astonished click to select answer amazed fearful wondering supportive
