Passage 077 · 1940
"Musée des Beaux Arts"
Main effectThrough inversion, litotes, and fragmentary syntax, Auden creates conversational profundity—syntax that sounds casual while making absolute claims about art and suffering.
Device index
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Tropes
Understatement through negation.
Schemes
Reversal of normal word order.
Syntax
"About suffering"—prepositional phrase fronted before subject creates emphasis through inversion. Topic (suffering) precedes claim.
"never wrong"—double negative morphology (never + wrong) creates emphatic positive. Syntax through negation paradoxically asserts certainty.
"The Old Masters"—noun phrase standing as sentence or fragment. Creates pause, emphasis on who "they" are.
Close reading
1Close Reading
Prepositional Opening
"About suffering"—prepositional phrase fronted before subject creates emphasis through inversion. Topic (suffering) precedes claim.
Negative Construction
"never wrong"—double negative morphology (never + wrong) creates emphatic positive. Syntax through negation paradoxically asserts certainty.
Fragment Effect
"The Old Masters"—noun phrase standing as sentence or fragment. Creates pause, emphasis on who "they" are.
Stylistic Effect
Through inversion, litotes, and fragmentary syntax, Auden creates conversational profundity—syntax that sounds casual while making absolute claims about art and suffering.