W.H. Auden “Refugee Blues” (1939)

Question 1

Form

Answer 1

Blues rhyme & structure (Refugee Blues).
Blues music was primarily African-American music, which often discussed the oppression and hardships that they were facing.
This communicates the oppression and humanisation of the Jews.
Tercet (3 lines) with an AAB rhyme scheme; the disconnection of the third line emphasises the Jews’ sense of displacement and reflects the sense of fragmentation and alienation characteristic of the period.

Question 2

Socio-political context

Answer 2

Post WWI & just before WWII:
Published in 1939 (just before WWII), the poem details the fleeing of Jewish people from Nazi Germany at the time, particularly focusing on their lack of options to flee to (mainly due to strict quotas which limited the amount of refugees/immigrants they could accept)

Question 3

Socio-political context
“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”

Answer 3

Antithesis – emphasises the status difference/range

Repetition – highlights their sense of exclusion and disconnection; reflects contextual feelings of alienation (industrialisation, post WWI)

Question 4

Socio-political context
“‘If you’ve got no passport, you’re officially dead’; // But we are still alive, my dear, but we are still alive.”

Answer 4

Harsh juxtaposition of dead and alive – reflects the Jews’ displacement and themes of disillusionment due to warfare

Question 5

Socio-political context
“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.”

Answer 5

Repetition – highlights feelings of disillusionment; reflects a loss of faith in the natural “goodness” of humanity and the devastation of warfare

Question 6

Personal context

Answer 6

Close connection with multiple Jewish people
Auden (who was homosexual) married Erika Mann in 1935, who was of Jewish heritage, to help her escape Nazi Germany and gain British citizenship
In 1939 he migrated to the US with his friend (and brief romantic partner) Christopher Isherwood, who was of Jewish heritage
While in the US he met his lifelong romantic partner Chester Kallman, also of Jewish heritage

Question 7

Personal context
“my dear”

Answer 7

Repetition – establishes the speaker’s close personal connection with the person he is talking to in the poem; communicates shared struggles of Jewish refugees at the time

Question 8

Personal context
“It was Hitler over Europe saying: ‘They must die’; // We were in his mind, my dear”

Answer 8

Contrast – emphasises the “othering” and alienation of the Jews