Musee Des Beaux Arts is a notable literary work by W. H. Auden. A complete discussion of this literary work is given, which will help you enhance your literary skills and prepare for the exam. Read the Main texts,
Key info,
Summary,
Themes,
Characters,
Literary devices,
Quotations,
Notes, and various study materials of Musee Des Beaux Arts.

Key info
Key Facts:
- Writer: W. H. Auden (1907 – 1973)
- Original Title: Musée des Beaux Arts (French for “Museum of Fine Arts”)
- Written: December 1938 (during Auden’s visit to Brussels, Belgium)
- First Published: 1939 in the journal New Writing, later in Another Time (1940)
- Form: Free verse poem (no fixed rhyme or meter; two stanzas)
- Genre: Modernist / Reflective poem
- Tone: Calm, ironic, thoughtful, and reflective
- Point of View: Third-person observer (the poet as a viewer of art and human life)
- Total Lines: About 21 lines
- Total Parts: Two stanzas
- Place Setting: Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique (Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels)
- Time Setting: Late 1930s, on the eve of World War II