What is auden describing in this passage

What people are usually doing while suffering is taking place.

Explanation:

The excerpt we are analyzing here is from the poem Musee des Beaux Arts, by W. H. Auden. Even though the poem mentions a painting of the myth about Icarus' fall from the sky and how people react indifferently to that happening, the excerpt itself is about people's suffering and indifference in general.

While someone is hurting, others are merely going on with their lives. While others are expecting a baby to born, the baby him/herself might not see birth as something spectacular.

onto a large boat, and mark the water level that the boat sinks to. then, take the elephant out and put a bunch of marked weights onto the boat until it reaches the same water level. add up the masses of the weights to get the weight of the elephant.