Refugee Blues Analytical Essay

The poem Refugee Blues" is a poem by W. H. Auden, written in 1939, one of a number of poems
Auden wrote during the war. Auden was a British poet but was American from 1946. He is very clever
the way he evokes feelings such as loneliness and sympathy for the readers.
The poem is set in England, however there is no precise location as the characters wander and search
for different places after being rejected from their last area, as they are only concerned with seeking
refuge (hence Refugee Blues). It is safe to assume that they are in England as there is a cultural
reference made in the third stanza where it says In the village churchyard there grows old yew, every
spring it blossoms anew which shows that they are in Britain as the yew tree is something that is
commonly grown in England. The actual physical setting changes once they determine that there is no place for them here
or unwanted as they move to a different location nearly every stanza. We see this in many stanzas, an example is when they
Came to a public meeting; the speaker got up and said: If we let them in, they will steal our daily bread, and then we see
them in a later stanza going down to the harbour upon the quay. This shows that they are scared and desperately need to
stay as they are quick to leave the previous area because after they had been accused, they move to the next location.
The main characters involved in W.H.Audens poem are the refugees, the consul and the committee. The persona is
included with the refugees. This is shown on line 4 where they say once we had a country. There is a sense that the
persona is talking to someone else which is shown with the repetition of my dear and the stanzas being written in the first
person plural. The consul shows anger and frustration on line 10, direct speech is used to show the harsh truth of what he
had said. The committee does not offer any help and they are asked to return next year is the best they could possibly do
for them.
W.H Auden uses action to make the reader think about whats happening. He writes clear sentences so we know what the
poem is about. We first see action on line 3 when it says: Yet there is no place for us, my dear, yet theres no place for us.
This implies that the refugees lost their homes and were kicked out of their country. Also on line 10 it says: Counsel which
means that they are being given advice, however nobody is physically helping them. This shows us how helpless and alone
they are in this situation. Finally on line 11 it says: if youve got no passport youre officially dead. This is a strong sentence
as it clearly shows us the reality of the situation and that without them having a passport they are dead. This shows the
harsh reality of life.
Auden uses his style of writing to convey strong feelings of sadness and loneliness but also hope. The poem is written in the
style of 12 bar blues which shows that even before you start reading it that the poem will be sad. The use of repetition of my
dear helps to show there is hope as the Jew (the persona of the poem) comforts his dear explaining the situation to her. It
also brings a scene of continuity to the poem making us understand that his girl is someone that he knows very well. The
repletion of the last phases of each stanza, for example we cannot go there now, my dear, we cannot go there now,
reinforces how lonely, badly treated and helpless they were in the situation. The direct speech shows others opinions of the
Jews. It says "If you've got no passport you're officially dead" when referring to the consul, "If we let them in, they will steal
our daily bread" when talking about a public speak and when Hitler says "They must die" all of these people have very
negative views on the Jews and this is shown through how they mistreat them.
Auden uses animal imagery to convey the mental toll of being trapped and isolated from the rest of the world for the Jews.
The use of personification in the animal imagery is evident in the way Auden presents the fish which were swinging as if
they were free. He also includes the distance they are from the Jews; ten feet away my dear, only ten feet away. The
significance of these lines suggests that that the Jews, despite only being ten feet away from the fish, are still trapped
despite being amongst the fish. This gives the impression to the reader that they are mentally trapped. This also could mean
that Auden was trying to imply that the Jews were near on escaping the torrent of oppression. As opposed to the whole
poems theme of world of torment for the Jews, this suggests a glimmer of hope for the two Jews as they could only be ten
feet away from freedom.
Along with the animal imagery, Auden makes a comparison between the human race, a civilised evolved society; and the
birds that are free but are less evolved, learned and sophisticated. Auden mentions the fact that despite the birds having no
politicians to govern them sang at their ease. Typical of the poem, Auden add emphasis by repeating the last line of the
stanza; they werent the human race, my dear, they werent the human race. The effect of this line in the poem is to
personify the birds to have nothing ruing over them and to show they are more humane than the human race that are
contrasted as being oppressive human race. This contrast is evident as the birds appear to have more rights to the world
than the two refugee Jews.
In the penultimate stanza, Auden shows the scale the scale of the two Jews rejection through the way he presents a building
as having a thousand floors and the fact that not one of them was theirs. This evidently shows that the Jews have been
rejected on a vast scale. This suggests the emotional impact of their rejection in the last line of the stanza as not one of the
one thousand floors of the building belonged to the two Jews.
In the last stanza, Auden includes a contrast between how much they are wanted and how much they are rejected. Auden
shows this through the way he shows the soldiers as marching to and fro; looking for you and me, my dear, looking for you
and me. This contrast shows how much they are wanted compared to how much they are unwanted. The scale of how
much they are wanted is suggested in the number of soldiers that are trying to find these two Jews which is ten thousand
compared to the smaller scale of refusal which is a thousand. This contrast shows that, despite the Jews being wanted by
some people, they are still going to be badly treated.
To conclude the poem refugee blues was a very thought-out poem which was brilliantly written in form of blues song. The
poem is set in England; the main characters are the refugees, the consul and the committee. The play is about how the
Jews have no place to go and how they were treated badly. The ideas that come across the poem are that they are
unwanted refugees who no-one cares about.