“REFUGEE BLUES” BY W.H.

AUDEN: A MARXIST ANALYSIS

1.0 Background
“Refugee Blues” was penned by the British poet W.H. Auden. The poem was first published in
1939, on the eve of World War II, and it contemplates the fate of Jewish refugees compelled to
flee Nazi Germany but unable to find new homes. This was during the height of the “modernist”
literary movement. Traditional values were scorned by modernism these are ways to create art
Ezra Pound and other modernist poets. Traditional literary forms such as the sonnet and meters,
T.S. Eliot Iambic pentameter, for example, felt stodgy and out-of-date, as if it couldn't convey
the energy and pace of the moment. Poets thus sought new forms, new ways of making art, that
were capable of expressing the dynamics of modern society. “Refugee Blues” participates in this
literary movement. With its unmetered lines and its unique, modern rhyme scheme, it creates a
fresh form to express the isolation and homelessness of Jewish refugees during the 1930s.
However, “Refugee Blues” breaks from modernism in an important respect.

1.1 A Copy of Refugee Blues by W.H. Auden

Say this city has ten million souls,
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.

Once we had a country and we thought it fair,

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 today, my dear, but where shall we go today?

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’;
We were in his mind, my dear, 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, but they weren’t German Jews.

Went down 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.
2.0 (Literary analysis)

Structure and Form:

3 lines in each stanza’s rhyme is A-A-B the first two lines of each tercet rhyme with each other
—usually using simple, direct rhymes. These lines thus feel like they belong together. But the
third line of each tercet does not rhyme with anything. It feels isolated, alone just like the author.

Theme: Complicity in prejudice, exile and loneliness

Tone: Sad and depressing. It shows the unrelenting reality of brutal experiences of the
refugees during the time of WW II.

Setting: The film "Refugee Blues" takes place in Europe during the 1930s. It examines the
difficult situation of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany.

Speaker: The speaker of “Refugee Blues” is a Jewish refugee living in the 1930s.

Symbols: Mansion- a symbol of wealth, power and privilege

(line2 “some are living in mansions”)

Blossoms- a sign of a new beginning

(line8 “every spring it blossoms anew)

Thunder – represents war, violence and conflict

(line19 “thought I hear the thunder rumbling in the sky”)

Holes – symbolize poverty and hardships

(line2 “some are living in holes”)

Figures of Speech:

SIMILE “Refugee Blues” contains a single simile, lines 25-26:

Went down the harbor and stood upon the quay,
 Saw the fish swimming as if they were free:
Metaphor Line 9
Old passports can’t do that, my dear, old passports can’t do that.

Assonance Line 7
In the village churchyard there grows an old yew,
Repetition Lines 3 and 6
Yet there’s no place for us, my dear, yet there’s no place for us.
We cannot go there now, my dear, we cannot go there now.
Alliteration Lines 31 and 32
Dreamed I saw a building with a thousand floors,
A thousand windows and a thousand doors:
Personification stanza 8
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, but they weren’t German Jews.

2.1: Marxist Outlook on Auden’s Refugee blues

Social status during the time of WW II in the poem settings’ greatly affect the lives of those who
were in the margin of the society. As a result, the poem highlights bigger issues of isolation,
loneliness, and exile. It portrays the trauma and anguish of being forced to leave home and of
being unable to return. On a deeper level, Auden exposes the folly of negative rights. He focuses
on ethnic discrimination on a social and moral level by providing a detailed depiction of the
suffering of German-Jewish refugees. The poem shows the hardships between human rights and
state rights on a civic and political level during that era. Refugees, according to Hannah Arendt,
are at the heart of the dilemma between the liberal democratic state's declared commitment to
human rights and claim to national sovereignty at the same time As a result of the war, such
states are eager to safeguard their national sovereignty by restricting membership, making
refugees no better than stateless people, according to Arendt. Despite being persecuted, they are
unable to seek asylum in countries such as the United States. The result is always the same. The
speaker has become a person without a state, forced to return to Germany, where the speaker will
face persecution and almost certain death. The intention of the poem is thus purposely vague it is
a way of calling attention to the persecution and hypocrisy that German Jewish refugees faced. In
this stanza,

Say this city has ten million souls,

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.

The third line is as lonely and isolated as the refugees themselves, stuck at a place without
companionship, friends and family. In stanza 8,

“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, but they weren’t German Jews.

Presents personification where animals are being treated and dressed with more respect and
dignity than of the speaker. This stanza

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.
Presents the modernism of the future as well as progress yet, the speaker is depress because they will
never taste that life.
3.0: Concluding statement

Through Marxist theoretical framework, it can be seen that “Refugee Blues” by W.H Auden
reflects the struggles that the Jewish refugees had experienced during the WW II. It shows how
wistful and depressing those undertakings were knowing that they do not have any power nor
option but to follow certain rules and protocols. This reflection can be likened to what the world
is experiencing during this time of the pandemic where those who have less in life are in
isolation coping with depression and struggles.

4.0: References

Hancock, S. (2017)."Refugee Blues" Read Aloud —Reciting W.H. Auden's "Refugee Blues" for Holocaust
Memorial Day, 2017. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=V7fMK8lNXMI

Poetry Foundation. (n.d.). W.H. Auden's Life — A detailed biography of the British poet from the Poetry
Foundation. Retrieved fromhttps://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/w-h-auden)

Holocaust Encyclopedia. (n.d.).German Jewish Refugees, 1933-1939. Retrieved from

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/german-jewish-refugees-1933-1939

Sheko,T. (2019). Refugee Blues-copy. Retrieved from https://medium.com/poem-of-the-day/w-h-auden-

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