The document provides background information on the poem "Musee des Beaux Arts" by W.H. Auden and the painting by Pieter Bruegel that inspired it. It discusses Bruegel's painting "The Fall of Icarus" which depicts the Greek myth of Icarus unwisely flying too close to the sun and crashing into the sea, but shows other characters continuing their work, unaware of Icarus's demise. The poem is about how suffering and tragedy can occur quietly while others go about their lives, as seen in Bruegel's painting where the fall of Icarus is a minor, barely noticed event.