In Brueghel’s Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away Quite leisurely from the disaster . . . –"Musée des Beaux Art," W. H. Auden How does the phrase "quite leisurely" connect to the scene depicted in the poem? It describes the depiction of trees and nature in the painting. It reinforces that no one is alarmed by Icarus's drowning. It emphasizes that the focus of the poem is on Icarus.

The poem Musee des Beaux Arts by W. H. Auden contrasts the feelings of those who are suffering and those who are not. Auden mentions that the Old Masters understood suffering very well. They were not only capable of seeing it, but also of seeing how unaffected those whose life is good are by it. He then proceeds to describe a painting by Pieter Brueghel that depicts Icarus's fall from the sky after the sun melted his wings made of wax. In the painting, those who are safe inside the ship or busy ploughing the fields did not care about the boy they had just seen falling into the cold ocean. They simply carry on with their lives, as we can see it the following lines:

In Breughel'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; the sun shone

As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green

Water, and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen

Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,

Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.