The old masters: how well they understood
its human position: how it takes place
while someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
how, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
for the miraculous birth, there always must be
children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
on a pond at the edge of the wood

w. h. auden, "musée des beaux arts"
what is auden describing in this passage?
a. what only wicked people do when someone is suffering
b. what people are usually doing while suffering is taking place
c. what the people who saw icarus drown were doing
d. what people should do when they see someone suffering