Refugee Blues

About Refugee Blues: This poem was written in 1939. The poem describes the condition of
Jewish refugees during the period of Nazi Germany, with a particular emphasis on how they
were discriminated against and antagonized.

Setting of the poem: The poem is set in some foreign country wherein the speaker and his
companion took refuge. This is seen from the indifference of people and also from the
sentence verse ‘If we let them in, they take will steal our daily bread.’

Poetic Devices in Refugee Blues

Stanzas: There is a total of 12 stanzas each having 3 lines in the poem.

Rhyme and Rhythm: The rhyme scheme is AAB. The last words of the first two lines of
each stanza rhyme with each other.

Imagery: There is some imagery when the speaker speaks of the yew in the churchyard
blossoming in spring each year.

Metaphor: The thunder rumbling in the distance is a metaphor for the orders of Hitler which
read ‘Kill all Jews.’

Repetition: The last line of each of the 12 stanzas has a part of It repeated in itself. For
example, ‘only ten feet away, my dear, only ten feet away.’ This repetition is effective in
emphasizing the content of the individual stanzas.

Allusion: There is no direct sentence stating the extent of damage done to the Jews nor is
there any verse saying the speaker is speaking to a female companion. These are understood
by the speaker’s words and descriptions.

Refugee Blues Summary by W H Auden

The speaker of the poem says that the current city he is in has ten million souls. Some live in
great mansions while some live in poor holes. In neither dwelling, there is a place for him
and his companion.

He once had a country which he thought was good and just. And it was still there but he
cannot go back to it now. His and his companion’s passports expired and they do not renew
themselves like the yew which blossoms anew in every spring.

When the council asked for their passports, he replied that they had expired. The consul then
shouted that if they had no passports, they were officially dead. But they were still alive.
They went in front of a committee to get their passports renewed. But they told them to come
back next year. But where shall they go today? The speaker wonders.

The speaker went to a public meeting and there he heard the open protestation against letting
them into the country. The speaker imagined thunder rumbling. It was Hitler saying that all
Jews must be put to death.

The speaker was a well-dressed poodle, a door opening for a cat, saw the fish swimming
freely in the harbor, saw the birds singing happily in the wood; they were all having better
lives than he and his companion, a couple of Jews.

The speaker dreams of a huge building with thousands of rooms and yet none had their name
over it. He stood on a great plain and saw tens of thousands of soldiers marching. The
speaker ends the poem by saying that they (the soldiers) were looking for them (the Jews).

In short, the speaker is saying that there is nowhere in this world, which has thousands of
doors, which takes good care of pets and which is a home to free birds and fish, a heart or a
place for Jews