1. Refugee Blues
by
W H Auden
● Sabitha M M, Assistant Professor, MES Asmabi College
2.
3. Stanza 1
● The narrator, a German Jew, describes the city they are currently living as refugees.
● The city ( New York) is home to “ ten million people” . ( Hyperbole)
● There are “souls” living in huge mansions, rich people in luxurious homes, the poor
people have to live in “holes” or shabby houses. Holes may also mean underground holes
or graves.
● The third line- narrator addresses his wife and tells her that the city refuses to provide
shelter for them, but is home to other ten million people.
● The entire stanza is in present tense, showing the present state of the narrator and his
wife.
4. Stanza 2
● The stanza is in past tense, narrator talking about the past time and place they previously lived
in,i.e Germany.
● You can find the country in an atlas, a country which was fair and didn’t believe in
discrimination.
● Addressing his ‘ dear’, he says that they can’t go there now because the Nazi soldiers will kill
them.
● The stanza signifies the past and the present conditions of the narrator.
● The poet depicts the suffering of the narrator and other German Jews.
5. Stanza 3
● The narrator compares and contrasts an old Yew tree in the village to the old
passport.
● Every year the tree sheds its leaves and withers, but blossoms again in Spring.
It ‘ renews’ every year.
● But their old passports can’t be renewed, even though they want to renew it
nobody allow them to do that.
● The stanza is in present tense talking about the misery of the refugees.
● Emotion of helplessness is expressed , without passport they can’t be back to
their village and see the Yew tree blossoming again.
6. Stanza 4
● The stanza shows how the German embassy declines to offer any help to
renew their passports.
● The narrator is told to consider themselves dead if they do not hold a new
passport.
● The third line gives the feeling of abandonment that how the country, the city
and the consul refuse to recognize them as humans.
● He tells his wife they are alive and they are surviving.
7. Stanza 5
● The narrator goes to a committee which helps the refugees.
● The committee excuses and asks the narrator to return after a year.
● The narrator feels hopeless and asks his wife, where should they go today,
where should they eat and sleep for a year.
● This stanza shows the treatment towards the Jewish refugees by non- Jewish
people.
● The feeling of abandonment is again expressed in the stanza.
8. Stanza 6
● The stanza shows how the country they are living at present,thinks about
providing shelter to the refugees.
● In the public meeting, the speaker of the meeting blames the refugees for
being the reason of their economic downfall.
● The word ‘ steal’ shows that the country thinks of the refugees as thieves.
● The narrator says to his wife that the words were directed towards them.
9. Stanza 7
● The use of the word ‘thunder’ expresses the danger and threat the narrator has to
constantly go through.
● The word rumbling emphasizes the power of the threat.
● The narrator addresses to his wife saying that it is their death that Hitler wants.
● The stanza signifies that how everyone was refusing to help the refugees, and how from
other side, Hitler wanted to kill them.
10. Stanza 8
● In this stanza the poet has competed and contrasted the treatment towards animals to
the treatment towards Jews.
● The narrator sees a poodle was made to wear a jacket to prevent from cold and a cat was
let inside the room.
● The stanza reveals that the narrator is a German Jew.
● This stanza signifies that how animals were kept more nicely than the German Jews by
the non-Jewish people.
11. Stanza 9
● The narrator standing upon the quay, looks how the fish is freely swimming in the sea.
● The use of ‘as if’ indicates the limited freedom enjoyed by the fish, because the fish are
bound to sea.
● The narrator then addresses to his wife that the “limited freedom” is only ten feet away,
the word ‘only’ expresses that how little the distance is, yet so far.
● The stanza shows that the refugees are so helpless and don’t have even a place to feel
free.
12. Stanza 10
● The stanza compares the freedom of birds to the freedom of the narrator.
● The narrator talks about birds singing at ease in the woods as they had no
politicians to curb their freedom.
● The word ‘ politicians’ is intended towards Hitler who curbed the freedom of
German Jews.
● The third line the narrator states the reason why the birds are at ease. They
aren’t human race, they have enough freedom to take decision about their
life.
● The stanza signifies the narrator’s thinking towards human race , which has
discrimination and politicians to curb their freedom.
13. Stanza 11
● In this stanza, Auden uses the narrator’s dream to show the feeling of
abandonment.
● The narrator dreams of a thousand houses, but none of the houses were his
own.
● It shows contrast between other people and the couple as it seems like
everyone has a place to live except them.
● The narrator has lost the hope of even living, they are just surviving.
14. Stanza 12
● The stanza gives an image of coldness and death, but also of survival in
challenging situations.
● A ‘ plain’ is vast, which gives a person endless possibilities and opportunities,
but what the narrator can see and feel is death.
● The narrator has to live a dull life ( ‘falling snow’) with cold treatment by
people and harsh living conditions.
● The stanza says that how the Nazi soldiers are searching for them ( German
Jews)to kill them. As the falling snow sticks to ground, so will the bullets in
their body.
● The speaker wants to highlight the tragedy and fear of the personal
experience as well as the collective experience.
