Transcript REFUGEE BLUES - English teaching resources

JONATHAN PEEL SGS 2012
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
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.
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
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.
JONATHAN PEEL SGS 2012
A strong contrast,
and attention is
drawn to the fact
that the refugees
are even worse off
than this.
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 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?
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 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
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
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.
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.
JONATHAN PEEL SGS 2012
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
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.
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.
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 thatare 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.
JONATHAN PEEL SGS 2012
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
Ultimately, little is positive. “Dreamed” suggests something betterapproaching,
but the dream is far from happy.
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.
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.
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 sens eof 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
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