POEM - Refugee Blues WH AUDEN

Question 1

Context

Answer 1

two german jews escaping authority

Question 2

Rhyme scheme shows refugees are separate from society

Still in stanza/country, but don’t fit in

Answer 2

AAB rhyme scheme, B is always about them, e.g. “Say this city has ten million souls, some of us are living in holes:
Yet there’s no place for us my dear, yet there’s no place for us.

Question 3

Consumed by authority/pathetic fallacy

Answer 3

“Thought I heard the thunder rumbling in the sky; It was Hitler over Europe, saying, “They must die”.

Question 4

Lack of understanding what freedom is/

Irony as animal’s better off than them despite hierarchy - they’re like animals//envious of animals.

Answer 4

“Saw the fish swimming as if they were free”

Question 5

Consumed by hierarchical system and no escaping it.

Answer 5

“Dreamed I saw a building with a thousand floors, A thousand windows and a thousand doors; not one of them was ours”

Question 6

Contrast of opening and ending to show how alone they are against the rest of the world

Answer 6

Start: “Say this city has ten million souls”
End: “Looking for you and me, my dear, looking for you and me”

Question 7

FORM= Direct address to loved one showing its a personal struggle AND universal, humanises him, personal shows wont be heard by anyone else.

The direct address secluded in middle of sentence reflecting their seclusion.

Answer 7

“Yet there’s no place for us, MY DEAR, yet there’s no place for us”

Question 8

Irony/rhetorical question showing lack of choice and freedom

Answer 8

“But where shall we go to-day, my dear, but where shall we go to-day?”