Put
in simple terms, this is a poem about the plight of a specific group of
refugees displaced and arriving in a country that is generally hostile to their
situation, even if well-meaning. Written in 1939, Auden focuses on the German
Jews arriving in the UK at that time, though the poem has taken in a timeless
quality due to the commonality of its subject. Indeed, it is not until stanza 8
that Auden identifies his Refugees. Possibly he is trying to show the
reluctance of the persecuted to identify themselves for fear of further
persecution, possibly he is allowing the narrator –we assume a husband – to
present the key ideas of his poem without the idea of Jewishness in some way
getting in the way of a universal message. He has chosen the title Refugee
Blues to link to the protest and subculture of the enslaved Blacks, who
developed this musical form in the Southern USA, and has written a poem in
which the rhythm and rhyme scheme (AAB) reflects the musical style. This is
another way of linking the fate of the Jews with a more universal theme of
suffering. Remember that this was written in 1939 – before the Holocaust and
before any real idea of the savagery and brutality of Hitler and Stalin.
There is a wide range of powerful imagery used to build up
the overall picture. In the opening line, the choice of the word “souls” is
important since it not only suggests a religious or sacred connotation, but
also serves to remove barriers between peoples – all are souls whether in
“mansions” or “holes”. Auden points out the artificial nature of human
segregation here. He refers to a Yew tree in stanza 3, locating the poem in
England but also setting up, by means of the reference to the Spring
blossoms, an idea of hope for the future which must be allowed to permeate this
poem, negative though it is. The tree is carried into the reference in the next
line to “old passports” – in essence dead trees- which suggests that hope may
not actually exist for all the people of the world. Auden uses Pathetic Fallacy
in stanzas in stanzas 7&10 with great effect. Hitler’s speeches are
metaphorically linked with thunder and therefore with threat and destructive
power and in the final stanza the snow serves to provide chill and a bleaching
of emotion to accompany the remarkable prediction of the events in Russia some
years later.
Other
linguistic devices that might be of interest include the direct speech in
stanza 4, the use of the word ”politely” in stanza 5, and the repetition of “my
dear” which runs through the poem in an understated comment on the affection
and love between the couple.
The poem’s
meaning is clearly expressed in Stanzas 2 & 9. This is more than simple
comment on the fate of the displaced. IN Stanza 2 Auden refers to the fact that
“once we had a country and we thought it far” and seems to be looking beyond
the homeland just left back to Palestine, the traditional homeland of the
Jewish race. If this is the case, then a reader must sense a stronger political
comment here. The Jews would be granted Palestine in 1947 to set up the state
of Israel and since this time the area has been riven with conflict. Is Auden
suggesting as early as 1939 that this should be the aim of the refugees?
Whatever your opinion on this, the harbour portrayed in Stanza 9 offers two
meanings. First the harbour and the quays are reflections of travel – of the
great Diaspora undertaken from Germany in the 30s and elsewhere throughout
history as persecuted peoples wait to embark to escape their tormentors. Auden
links this idea with that of the contrast between the freedom of the animal
kingdom, seemingly within touching distance ( but still out of reach) and the
persecution or polite lack of interest shown to the narrator of the poem.
The poem has
an effect beyond the apparent simplicity of its message and it gains in power
form the musical form and the ideas within it. The reader will notice,
hopefully with a shudder of self-recognition, that the Jews are viewed as
thieves of “our daily bread”, a phrase which links the accusers directly to the
Christian community and shows up the innate hypocrisy of many “people of
faith”.
Jonathan
Peel SGS 2012
