Refugee Blues: WH Auden (1907-1973)
1. Say this city has ten million souls,
2. Some are living in mansions, some are living in holes:
3. Yet there's no place for us, my dear, yet there's no place for us.
4. Once we had a country and we thought it fair,
5. Look in the atlas and you'll find it there:
6. We cannot go there now, my dear, we cannot go there now.
7. In the village churchyard there grows an old yew,
8. Every spring it blossoms anew:
9. Old passports can't do that, my dear, old passports can't do that.
10. The consul banged the table and said,
11. " If you've got no passport you're officially dead":
12. But we are still alive, my dear, but we are still alive.
13. Went to a committee; they offered me a chair;
14. Asked me politely to return next year:
15. But where shall we go to-day, my dear, but where shall we go to-day?
16. Came to a public meeting; the speaker got up and said:
17. ‘If we let them in, they will steal our daily bread ’;
18. He was talking of you and me, my dear, he was talking of you and me.
19. Thought I heard the thunder rumbling in the sky;
20. It was Hitler over Europe, saying, "They must die":
21. O we were in his mind, my dear, O we were in his mind.
22. Saw a poodle in a jacket fastened with a pin,
23. Saw a door opened and a cat let in:
24. But they weren't German Jews, my dear, but they weren't German Jews.
25. Went down the harbour and stood upon the quay,
26. Saw the fish swimming as if they were free:
27. Only ten feet away, my dear, only ten feet away.
28. Walked through a wood, saw the birds in the trees;
29. They had no politicians and sang at their ease:
30. They weren't the human race, my dear, they weren't the human race.
31. Dreamed I saw a building with a thousand floors,
32. A thousand windows and a thousand doors;
33. Not one of them was ours, my dear, not one of them was ours.
34. Stood on a great plain in the falling snow;
35. Ten thousand soldiers marched to and fro:
36. Looking for you and me, my dear, looking for you and me. Couple’s position
Society’s reaction: Cold and cruel
Pathetic fallacy
Natural state of the world
Structure: Refrain/punctuation
, Biographical Information
• Written in 1939 (just before start of WWII)
• Anti-Semitism in Germany was escalating and many Jewish people were trying to
flee. However, many countries had quotas on Jewish emigration and a lot of Jews
were turned away/sent back.
Meaning/Message
• Inhumanity: Humankind’s evil in hurting others.
• Jew’s oppression leading up to WWII. Jewish refugees were forced to flee Nazi
Germany but were unable to find refuge elsewhere.
Imagery/Figures of Speech/Diction
• Comparison of nature vs. freedom.
• Various spaces of belonging being shut down to them.
Structure
• Refrain (‘my dear’): Traditional in blues music and acts as a chorus.
• Dramatic monologue: Poem is in the form of a speech of an individual; it’s a
narrative of the speaker’s mindset an describes a particular situation.
• Regular: Set rhyme scheme and repetition (Systemic oppression).
Tone/Mood
• Hopeless, poignant, chilling.
1. Say this city has ten million souls,
2. Some are living in mansions, some are living in holes:
3. Yet there's no place for us, my dear, yet there's no place for us.
4. Once we had a country and we thought it fair,
5. Look in the atlas and you'll find it there:
6. We cannot go there now, my dear, we cannot go there now.
7. In the village churchyard there grows an old yew,
8. Every spring it blossoms anew:
9. Old passports can't do that, my dear, old passports can't do that.
10. The consul banged the table and said,
11. " If you've got no passport you're officially dead":
12. But we are still alive, my dear, but we are still alive.
13. Went to a committee; they offered me a chair;
14. Asked me politely to return next year:
15. But where shall we go to-day, my dear, but where shall we go to-day?
16. Came to a public meeting; the speaker got up and said:
17. ‘If we let them in, they will steal our daily bread ’;
18. He was talking of you and me, my dear, he was talking of you and me.
19. Thought I heard the thunder rumbling in the sky;
20. It was Hitler over Europe, saying, "They must die":
21. O we were in his mind, my dear, O we were in his mind.
22. Saw a poodle in a jacket fastened with a pin,
23. Saw a door opened and a cat let in:
24. But they weren't German Jews, my dear, but they weren't German Jews.
25. Went down the harbour and stood upon the quay,
26. Saw the fish swimming as if they were free:
27. Only ten feet away, my dear, only ten feet away.
28. Walked through a wood, saw the birds in the trees;
29. They had no politicians and sang at their ease:
30. They weren't the human race, my dear, they weren't the human race.
31. Dreamed I saw a building with a thousand floors,
32. A thousand windows and a thousand doors;
33. Not one of them was ours, my dear, not one of them was ours.
34. Stood on a great plain in the falling snow;
35. Ten thousand soldiers marched to and fro:
36. Looking for you and me, my dear, looking for you and me. Couple’s position
Society’s reaction: Cold and cruel
Pathetic fallacy
Natural state of the world
Structure: Refrain/punctuation
, Biographical Information
• Written in 1939 (just before start of WWII)
• Anti-Semitism in Germany was escalating and many Jewish people were trying to
flee. However, many countries had quotas on Jewish emigration and a lot of Jews
were turned away/sent back.
Meaning/Message
• Inhumanity: Humankind’s evil in hurting others.
• Jew’s oppression leading up to WWII. Jewish refugees were forced to flee Nazi
Germany but were unable to find refuge elsewhere.
Imagery/Figures of Speech/Diction
• Comparison of nature vs. freedom.
• Various spaces of belonging being shut down to them.
Structure
• Refrain (‘my dear’): Traditional in blues music and acts as a chorus.
• Dramatic monologue: Poem is in the form of a speech of an individual; it’s a
narrative of the speaker’s mindset an describes a particular situation.
• Regular: Set rhyme scheme and repetition (Systemic oppression).
Tone/Mood
• Hopeless, poignant, chilling.
