A detailed line by line analysis of the poem "Refugee Blues" created by a 90% matric 2020 English HL student (top 1% in the subject).
Explains the meanings of lines, figures of speech used, structure and more.
‘Refugee Blues’ -WH Auden (1907-1973) Natural state
Say this city has ten million souls, Society’s cruelty
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. Couple’s position
Once we had a country and we thought it fair, Pathetic fallacy
Look in the atlas and you’ll find it there:
We cannot go there now, my dear, we cannot go there now.
In the village churchyard there grows an old yew,
Every spring it blossoms anew:
Old passports can’t do that, my dear, old passports can’t do that.
The consul banged the table and said,
“If you’ve got no passport you’re officially dead”:
But we are still alive, my dear, but we are still alive.
Went to a committee; they offered me a chair;
Asked me politely to return next year:
But where shall we go to-day, my dear, but where shall we go to-day?
Came to a public meeting; the speaker got up and said:
“If we let them in, they will steal our daily bread”;
He was talking of you and me, my dear, he was talking of you and me.
Thought I heard the thunder rumbling in the sky;
It was Hitler over Europe, saying, “They must die”:
O we were in his mind, my dear, o we were in his mind.
Saw a poodle in a jacket fastened with a pin,
Saw a door opened and a cat let in:
But they weren’t German Jews, my dear, they weren’t German Jews.
Went down to the harbour and stood upon the quay,
Saw the fish swimming as if they were free:
Only ten feet away, my dear, only ten feet away.
Walked through a wood, saw the birds in the trees;
They had no politicians and sang at their ease:
They weren’t the human race, my dear, they weren’t the human race.
Dreamed I saw a building with a thousand floors,
A thousand windows and a thousand doors;
Not one of them was ours, my dear, not one of them was ours.
Stood on a great plain in the falling snow;
Ten thousand soldiers marched to and fro:
Looking for you and me, my dear, looking for you and me.
, Title
Refugee = person who’s been forced to leave their country to escape war/persecution.
Blues = genre of music with a particular structure of the feeling of depression.
Say this city has ten million souls,
Soul = sacred, precious, valuable, represents identity and spirituality. 10 000 = hyperbolic:
fundamentally, all humans are the same.
Some are living in mansions, some are living in holes:
Social inequality created by man. Refugees are not even treated as unequal, but rather
totally excluded off the radar.
Yet there’s no place for us, my dear, yet there’s no place for us.
My dear = sense of intimacy and closeness. No place of belonging, no space for them,
nowhere to go.
Stanza
No equality.
Once we had a country and we thought it fair,
Jews made European countries their homes. Israel (then Palestine) did not have many
Jews at the time.
Look in the atlas and you’ll find it there:
It still exists and should therefore allow for anyone to live there.
We cannot go there now, my dear, we cannot go there now.
Jews are unwelcome.
Stanza
No country = no nationality.
In the village churchyard there grows an old yew,
Churchyard = religion/identity/faith. Yew = tree known for regeneration.
Every spring it blossoms anew:
Nature is regenerative: always creating new life (rebirth and rebuild).
Old passports can’t do that, my dear, old passports can’t do that.
Bureaucracy: refugees are stopped by government officials and do not have the
opportunity to regrow.
Stanza
No chance to rebuild their lives.
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