Refugee Blues Analysis
Refugee Blues analysis
The poem laments about the poor conditions the narrator, a German Jew, and his wife has to go through in order to survive from Hitler's anti-semitic policy. This poem is about how everyone denied to help the refugees.
Refugee is a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, or persecution. Whereas blues means a song which laments an event that is depressing. Combined together the title talks about the state of sorrow in which a German Jew, who is now a refugee have to live. By combing these two words, the poem talks about the utter state of exile that was experienced by the German Jews during the Holocaust. The poem consists of many references to the same.
Say this city has ten million souls,
Some are living in mansions, some are living in holes:
Yet there's no place for us, my dear, yet there's no place for us.
In this stanza, the narrator describes the city they are currently taking refuge in. The narrator describes this city as huge, by using the phrase "ten million souls". He says that there are "souls" living in huge mansions, that is rich men live in luxurious homes, whereas, the poor men have to live in "holes", shabby houses. There is a pun intended on the word "holes", that people lived in shabby house and also under the ground, that is, in grave. The last line of the poem says the injustice the narrator has to go through. Auden has used the form of Blues to write thus poem, in which 3line stanzas are formed, the first two are descriptive, and the third is emotion, or the feeling. It is interesting how the narrator addresses to someone dear to him throughout the poem, but for some reason does not reveal his or her identity, we can assume that it is addressed to his wife. In the third line, the narrator tells to his wife that even though this city is home to ten million people, there is not a hole of a place for them to live. This line shows of the feeling of despair as the city refuses to provide
The poem laments about the poor conditions the narrator, a German Jew, and his wife has to go through in order to survive from Hitler's anti-semitic policy. This poem is about how everyone denied to help the refugees.
Refugee is a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, or persecution. Whereas blues means a song which laments an event that is depressing. Combined together the title talks about the state of sorrow in which a German Jew, who is now a refugee have to live. By combing these two words, the poem talks about the utter state of exile that was experienced by the German Jews during the Holocaust. The poem consists of many references to the same.
Say this city has ten million souls,
Some are living in mansions, some are living in holes:
Yet there's no place for us, my dear, yet there's no place for us.
In this stanza, the narrator describes the city they are currently taking refuge in. The narrator describes this city as huge, by using the phrase "ten million souls". He says that there are "souls" living in huge mansions, that is rich men live in luxurious homes, whereas, the poor men have to live in "holes", shabby houses. There is a pun intended on the word "holes", that people lived in shabby house and also under the ground, that is, in grave. The last line of the poem says the injustice the narrator has to go through. Auden has used the form of Blues to write thus poem, in which 3line stanzas are formed, the first two are descriptive, and the third is emotion, or the feeling. It is interesting how the narrator addresses to someone dear to him throughout the poem, but for some reason does not reveal his or her identity, we can assume that it is addressed to his wife. In the third line, the narrator tells to his wife that even though this city is home to ten million people, there is not a hole of a place for them to live. This line shows of the feeling of despair as the city refuses to provide