REFUGEE BLUES

1. REFUGEE BLUES Sunday, 30 December 2012 JONATHAN PEEL SGS 2012

2. Content overview • Title focuses both on alienation and protest/suffering. • The BLUES is a musical form developed by slaves in the 19C and is used to protest and to mourn. It is a sad form, often comprising of three line stanzas and employing rhyme. Follow this link for a soundtrack for your work… Blues - a selection • 1930s saw a huge amount of Jewish migration as refugees fled the rise of Hitler. Many arrived in the UK with few belongings and a loss of identity. • Auden was a homosexual and pacifist who travelled to the USA in 1939. Whilst his experiences do not have the same urgency or pain as the refugees he described, he has felt the strangeness of alienation in his own life. JONATHAN PEEL SGS 2012

3. The POEM • Refugee Blues • 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 to-day, my dear, but where shall we go to-day?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":O we were in his mind, my dear, O 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.  • WH Auden JONATHAN PEEL SGS 2012

4. The poem opens in media res, almost in the middle of a conversation. Attention is drawn to the size of the city and the smallness of the speaker and to the idea that the citizens are “souls” –a religious connotation. Are they different to the speaker? A strong contrast, and attention is drawn to the fact that the refugees are even worse off than this. 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. The first appearance of the repetitive phrase “my dear” in its balanced third line. The sense is of a natural delivery and a caring relationship. The repetition drives home the alienation and the new stanza introduces the sense of wistful remembrance. “Once” suggests that it is long gone and “fair” carries a sense both of beauty and justice. The 2nd person might be an invitation to the reader or simply a continuation of the conversation with “my dear”. “Cannot “ suggests that there is no possibility of return. JONATHAN PEEL SGS 2012

5. The yew tree is typical of English Churchyards and suggests stability and longevity – a contrast with the speaker. Attention is drawn to the Spring blossom – coninuity and even, metaphorically, children and descendants. It has a rhyme link with “Jew” which may also be significant. The voice seems regretful here. The link in the mind is trees-paper-passports, but emphasises the regret felt at the uselessness of their documentation and hence, their lack of identity 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. There seems to be anger/frustration shown by the authority figure here. Direct speech is used for the first time to emphasise the harsh truth of what is said. The final line repeats the phrase “but we are still alive” as both a cry of frustration and a sigh of relief. JONATHAN PEEL SGS 2012

6. In this pair of stanzas, the response of authority on a domestic level is observed. First the committee –very English in its politeness – offers no praxtical help, but the fatuous suggestion that he might “return next year”, then the attitude of the public shos a xenophobic aggression. Again Auden uses direct speech and makes another clear link to Christian religion in the mention of “daily bread”. There is a reinforcement of the sense of alienation by this. Went to a committee; they offered me a chair;Asked me politely to return next year:But where shall we go to-day, my dear, but where shall we go to-day?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. The voice of the narrator may alter at the close of each stanza. Here we might see incredulity in the seconf stanza and despair in the first. A good student needs to be aware of the potential shifts in emotion and be able to respond to them. JONATHAN PEEL SGS 2012

7. Pathetic Fallacy is used to sugges the imminent war building in Europe and the poem becomes precise – Hitler’s words carry compulsion in the use of “must” which adds strength to the stanza. Thought I heard the thunder rumbling in the sky;It was Hitler over Europe, saying, "They must die":O we were in his mind, my dear, O 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. The overriding emotion now is bitterness. German Jews are singled out for hostility. Even animals –and weak ones at that- are granted comfort, unnecessary warmth and finery, and a home. The repetition of the final line is clear and stark and the reader in the 1930s would have to face up to an unpleasant truth here. Although there is a clear subject here, the poem at this point can send a clear message to readers of all generations. The vocative “O” is not only emotional, but adds a sense of lamentation to the stanza. “we were in his mind” focuses the attention of the reader firmly onto the narrator and his wife, as well as onto the whole Jewish race. JONATHAN PEEL SGS 2012

8. The speaker looks to nature and sees better examples for life than provided by humanity. First he looks to the sea – his homelessness and rootlessness make him look to travel. The fish seem free and so close. He is unable to reach them however and this metaphor suggests that he is still unable to see himself as free within society. 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. Even here there is uncertainty – the fish swim “as if they were free” - the simile suggests that they may not be and that the narrator reflects his lack of freedom onto nature. In the wood ( typically a place of fear and mystery in German fairy tales), the narrator equates the song of the birds (typically representative of freedom) with the absence of politicians. His point is clear – the human race is indelibly tainted by politics. JONATHAN PEEL SGS 2012

9. Ultimately, little is positive. “Dreamed” suggests something betterapproaching, but the dream is far from happy. The focus Is not only on the sheer size of the building – reminiscent of the “ten million souls” and having the same effect, but also has resonances of the Tower of Babel from the Bible. To be shut out of this is truly to be alone and isolated. As the final word of the line, “doors” carries enormous strength and increases the sense of not belonging. 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.  The final stanza seems prescient and looks ahead to 1941 and the advance into RUSSIA, perhaps. The sense is of empty desolation and loneliness conveyed again by the Pathetic Fallacy. The soldiers who march “too and fro” suggest a pointlessness to their activities yet there is a point and Auden drives it home in the final line. – “you and me” may well be the narrator speaking to his wife, but caries aqlso a senseof Auden addressing his readers directly. The pacifist responds to the threat of war by pointing out that no one will be safe and that the threat hangs of us all, “my dear”. JONATHAN PEEL SGS 2012

10. In summary • A poem which responds both to the fate of the displaced and homeless refugees and also manages to look ahead to the coming war that will destroy Europe. • The form is that of a one-sided conversation – at times comforting, at times accusatory and at time s bitter. • The poet possibly manages to speak in his own voice in the final stanza. • The poem uses contrasts to develop ideas: • Haves and Have nots • Nature and Humans • Long established and recently arrived • Polite but useless authority and hostile neighbours • What else can you find? JONATHAN PEEL SGS 2012