Refugee Blues by W.H. Auden, written in 1939, is a powerful political poem exploring the plight of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany. The poem uses the blues musical form to convey themes of displacement, dehumanization, and the indifference of the international community. Through vivid imagery comparing refugees to animals (poodles, cats, birds, fish) and contrasting their fate with the powerful state machinery, Auden critiques how bureaucratic systems strip refugees of their identity and humanity. The poem's refrain 'Yet there is no place for us' captures the universal experience of exclusion, while the final stanza's image of 10,000 soldiers searching for two people in falling snow creates a chilling conclusion about the state's power to destroy vulnerable individuals.
Refugee Blues | Poem by WH Auden | ISC Class 12 Modern English | Explained by Sudhir SirAdded:
Hello, Namaskar, Vanakkam. My name is Sudhir Sahasranaman and you're watching Study With Sudhir. Your one-stop destination for quality explanation videos. In this video, I'm going to look at this poem called Refugee Blues, which is part of your ISC Class 12 Modern English syllabus. This particular textbook, Reflections, a collection of poems. This is a second poem in your Class 12 syllabus. So, let's get started. It has taken me quite a lot of time. I spent 2 days preparing and then I realized I had perhaps over complicated the explanation. Uh and then I spent another 1 and 1/2 days simplifying the entire thing. So, here is what I have for you.
Before I start, just want to tell you that I would be doing the test papers for the board examinations a little later in the year. Once I finish explaining all the chapters and the entire Pygmalion Act 3, Act 4, Act 5. Okay? So, that will come only after I've finished the entire syllabus. That will be there on the studywithsudhir.com website. I want you to keep a pen and your notebook so that you can take down notes as I explain. Okay? Keep pausing the video and taking down notes. That will help you in better retention and also when you read your own handwriting, always better than any other source of notes.
So, what exactly is the poem about? Now, this particular poem, written in 1939.
Now, all of you have studied about the Second World War in your Class 10 history, right? So, we knew we know that September 1939 is when Hitler attacked Poland and that led to the outbreak of the Second World War. So, this poem, which was written in the same year, is an exploration. And why have I used the adjective haunting? Because it kind of describes the kind of exploration because you feel very sad and unhappy at the tragic turn of circumstances for these refugees. Refugees essentially a person who has to take refuge in another country because he or she cannot live in their own country, his or her own country. So, it's an exploration of the displacement, okay? That is you're displaced from your homeland, you're isolated, you don't have anyone to count on, and dehumanization. That is you are not considered and treated respectfully like a human being ideally should be. Okay?
And this kind of a situation was faced by several Jewish refugees who were fleeing Germany, which was ruled by Adolf Hitler, who had the Nazi Party, who essentially believed in an anti-Jew kind of an attitude. Okay? So, this is the background to the poem. Okay? This particular poem, what is important also is that you need to know the historical context. So, what I've done is that for each of the 12 stanzas, I've also explained the historical context because when because you need to put the historical context in order to be able to understand what the poet is trying to say and be able to then explain what the lines are saying in every stanza.
So, the poem in that sense is a very sharp political critique. Okay? Political critique means it That's why I said it is it is kind of intertwined with the politics of 1939, right?
Of a world, and not just Germany, but of the entire world, including the USA, which has closed its doors to those in desperate need. That is people who are coming to take refuge saying that we can't live in the country of our birth.
Please give us shelter. And that country says, "No, we won't." And slams the door. They lock outside the door, signifies the no entry sign that these countries are putting in front of those who desperately need home and some kind of shelter. Okay?
Now, why the word blues has been used? Now, this is again very important. Now, this is a brand of music actually. Here should be a kind of music or a brand of music or a genre of music that originated in the African-American communities in the USA in the late 19th century. Okay?
Blues is considered a music of survival.
Okay? It's not it's not something which is completely 100% happy. They are happy, but it is of a different kind because it is born out of the experience of oppression and resistance. That is you provide resist you resist something, you show resilience, you fight against that oppression, right?
So, these kind of song, this kind of music, the blues music, the blues brand of music is essentially coming originating from that. Okay? So, the blues is in a way, if I have to kind of put it in one line, it is a way of saying life is hard, life is not easy, but I'm suffering also, but I'm going to still here sing about it. That is life is not easy, life is tough, life is hard, but despite all that experience of suffering, I'm still going to sing about life, right? So, that is what is the brand of music Refugee Blues. So, by adding the word blues, W. H. Auden is trying to kind of convey a particular mood to this entire poem.
Now, again to come back to the historical context, which I said, this entire poem is going to be intertwined with the historical context. Now, this was written just before the start of the Second World War in September 1939.
Uh the poem serves as a direct criticism of the international community's indifference, what I just now told you.
Because it wasn't one Of course, it was about the cruelty of the Nazis against the Jews. It was also about the indifference of other countries towards the Jews who were fleeing Germany and trying to take shelter in some other countries. For example, you have instances of the bureaucrats who are saying, "If you have no passport, you are officially dead. You do not exist, right?"
There are politicians who talk about, "Oh, these refugees will come and steal our bread." I'll tell you one really interesting anecdote that was told to me. This was I don't know if you know that.
Above a certain age, I'm not sure if it is 75 or above 80, every pensioner every year has to provide a life certificate, right? Uh that is to say that I am alive and therefore I should be allowed to draw my pension every month, right?
Now, this is something I mean, my father, who's 88, gives it.
Uh so, there was a particular incident which was related to me that a particular person went I mean, you have to submit this to the bank, I think. Uh you go to the bank and you submit this and they said that, "Oh, we have got this particular certificate of this year. Fine, thank you. But what what the unfortunate part is that the bank has misplaced the life certificate you had submitted last year."
So, can you give a life certificate of last year even though the life certificate of this year exists? So, that's like, you know, a little uh on the funny side, but unfortunately, that's also a part of the way the bureaucracy works in our country or perhaps any other country, right?
Now, the poem is also about the terrifying realization. If you see the illustration, you get an idea. The spotlight is on this person. He's within a crowd, right? You're within a nameless, faceless crowd. You can be surrounded by millions of people, yet you can be completely alone and that can be very dangerous. You're completely alone. It's like, you know, you're faced with a mob. The mob is coming to attack you. They're nameless, faceless people.
You don't know anyone. You don't even know why they're coming to attack you.
And you are completely alone, isolated, right?
That's a kind of a terrifying reality that Refugee Blues talks about. Okay?
Then, let's also understand the significance of the title. See, I'm telling you all these things so that when you get into the poem, you already know the basic background and that will make it easier for you to understand.
There will be some people who will say the poem starts at 8 minutes 16 seconds.
I know there will be people like that without realizing that what I'm telling you can also come as questions and this will actually help you in writing your five-mark and 10-mark answers. Okay? So, significance of the title. Now, the word refugee in the title, it kind of strips the protagonist of their names. We are not told any names that this person is John Smith. This lady is Julie uh Thomas. We are not told anything like that. We are only told that they are refugees. So, there's no identity.
There's no personalized identity, right?
So, it reduces these persons to a status of statelessness that they do not belong to any country anymore because their passports have been canceled. They're excluded from Germany.
And the word blues restores their humanity. So, it's a contrast. So, the word blues restores their humanity by giving them a voice to express their feeling. So, while the word refugees it strips the protagonist of their names, identity, and home, but the word blues gives them a voice that they can still express their angst, their disappointment, the feeling of you know, absolute loneliness and you know, being desolate, right? So that is something we need to understand from the title.
Also, the title highlights the universal nature of operation, right?
What I mean to say is that this can happen in any country and this did happen in several countries, right? So what it does to universalize this particular emotion, this nature of operation is to take a musical route in the African-American struggle. And by using this specific structure of a musical form, which was very popular in the USA, what the poet is suggesting is that the isolation and the othering. Now this is an important word which I want you to use in your answers. The othering means you know, a particular community faced othering by the majority community.
Okay, so othering means that you are others. We do not treat you as one among us. You are different. We will socially boycott you. We will not treat you with equality, right? So that is called the phenomena of othering. Okay, so please use this word. It's a very powerful word and it will convey exactly what this poem is all about, right? So please use this word.
So this feeling of being othered was experienced by Jewish refugees in 1939 and this is part of the broader history of human injustice. That is, you feel that you no longer I mean, this is the country I was born.
This is the country where I studied.
This is the country where I worked. Yet today one fine day I am told that no, you do not belong to this country, get out. Your passport is cancelled. We do not treat you as one of our own. Or if you continue to live here, you will get killed or you will get excluded. You will be socially boycotted, right? So you are left in a state of absolute helplessness. So that is the mood and the tonality of this particular poem.
Also, the title see I've given you the entire answer to the significance of the title. So please note this down so that you have one five to 10 mark answer absolutely ready. The title also highlights the theme of resilience.
Resilience means to put up a resistance amid dehumanization. Even though they are not being treated like human beings respectfully as the blues is traditionally a music of survival. Very important. Blues is a music of survival.
It suggests the title suggests the blues word suggests is that even when the refugees are denied a place, that is they do not get a place to live or take shelter in in any other country where they are not a citizen. It is only out of humanitarian considerations, right?
Or they are you know, allowed an opportunity to earn their bread. They can transform their trauma into a critique of the world that has rejected them. So while Auden is very very blunt in the manner he conveys it, he conveys it through the musicality of the blues.
Okay, the format is of the blues where you are almost celebrating the resilience and the resistance. I hope it's clear and now we will straight away get into the poem.
Let's now get into the poem. Everything will be explained in great detail. Okay, so as I said, please keep your notebook and pen with you. Okay, this is the first stanza. Say this city has 10 million souls. Some are living in mansions, some are living in holes.
Yet there is no place for us, my dear.
Yet there is no place for us. This is the opening stanza. There are 12 stanzas and it is in of three lines each, right?
So the rhyme scheme all through you will find is A A B.
Souls, holes, for us. Okay, we will see this in every stanza. Now in this opening stanza, Auden is immediately establishing the core reality of exclusion. That is, the city has 10 million souls. Some of them are living in mansions, that is bungalows. Some are living in absolutely you know, very very small kind of tenements, you know, where there is very little space, but they're still living there. But there is no place for us.
That's what this particular stanza is conveying. So if I have to look at the word meanings, the first word souls.
[snorts] Souls essentially means people, but here it also carries some kind of a spiritual weight, right?
Soul. We say you know, after his demise, the soul has departed to heaven. So soul here it is referring to literally to people, but when you say souls, you're also giving it some kind of a spiritual kind of a touch. So it implies that every resident is a human being with a life, with a story. So therefore it makes the refugees feel like some kind of a as if the the the city has treated them very unfairly. Okay, that's what the soul gives it a slightly greater importance, significance and weight. Mansions and holes. Now mansions is a juxtaposition. Mansions versus holes. Mansions represent extreme wealth, largeness, bungalow, security, everything, comfort, luxury. Whereas holes represent extreme poverty, very cramped spaces, slums, right? So there is a juxtaposition, the contrast between the mansions and the holes.
My dear, the reference to my dear means that the poet is talking to someone, a very dear companion, right? It is a term of endearment, right? Someone who is dear to you is where you use the word my dear, right?
It is like a conversation. It establishes that the poem is essentially a conversation, a one-sided conversation where I am talking to someone, a companion who is extremely dear to me and it adds a layer of intimacy, right? A layer of intimacy and some kind of a personal tragedy inside a very political problem, which is very big. World War is a big political problem, but there you are telling a human story, which is representative of the human problems of a large community of refugees. Okay, I hope this is clear.
Let's understand the broader context.
Now the city, it could have referred to London, it could have referred to New York and any or any other city where these refugees were likely to go to from Germany.
These are places where Jewish refugees sought asylum. Asylum means that you take refuge there and the country says that okay, we recognize you as a refugee. For example, there are many refugees who live in the USA. There are many for example, there are a whole lot of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees who even today live in Tamil Nadu, right? From years ago many of them of course have gone back, but especially during the the Lanka Tamil conflict, the LTTE etc. Before 2009, there were a large number of Tamil refugees who lived in Tamil Nadu. Even today they live, but many of them have gone back.
So they seek asylum in the other country. At that time countries had strict quotas and bureaucratic handles.
That is, we don't allow anyone to get in. I mean, I'm talking about the context of this poem that made it impossible for those who were getting out of Germany to find residence in a legal manner, right? So that is what is the reference to the city in the first line. Say this city has 10 million souls. Okay, then the second point is the 10 million.
Okay, it highlights the indifference of the master. 10 million people.
There are 10 million people, yet it is an indifferent kind of a city. So it's a city which has a lot of life. It has space for people to live in mansions, also people living in holes, but physically there is I mean, physically and mathematically there could be room for some more people coming out of Nazi Germany, but legally and also socially the door is shut.
Sorry, no space for any one of you.
There is space. The city would have space for some more people, but legally and in a very social manner, they're excluded and said sorry, we don't have space for you, right?
See, this is a tough poem, which is why I'm taking this effort to kind of explain in an elaborate manner so that you are left with no doubts. Now there is this word yet in the third line with which the third line starts. The power of yet. The word yet immediately gives a contrast. We are told about a setting in the first two lines and the third line and the use of the word yet gives a very sharp sudden contrast. It suggests that despite the vastness and the variety of accommodation available in the world, the speaker and the companion of the speaker are excluded. They do not have space here in which a city where millions live, right? Dehumanization through exclusion. By saying that even those in holes have a place, Auden is suggesting that the refugees are positioned below those who live in holes, you know, live in absolutely impoverished surroundings. Even they have a space. The mansions, of course, they're all comfortable. But even those who live in holes have a space, but there is no space for anyone else. To have a hole is to have a fixed point of existence, but to have no place is to mean that the city does not recognize you. The city does not believe that you exist. The city treats you as invisible.
The city treats you almost like a ghost.
So, you are one level below those who live in holes, you know, your situation तुम्हारी स्थिति तुम्हारी परिस्थिति उनसे भी बदतर है। You are worse off than those who live in holes. You understand the contrast mansions, holes, and then you, homeless, excluded socially.
Then the refrain, "Yet there is no place for us," which is repeated in the third sentence. At the end of the stanza, it is the typical style of the blues where there is a repetitive circular refrain.
Refrain is a poetic device used here. I will discuss all the poetic devices at the end of the explanation video. So, there is a circular nature of the blues, and it creates a feeling of exhaustion as if the speaker is stating a fact that they've had to repeat themselves repeat to themselves many times. You keep on repeating, "Yet there is no place for us. Yet there is no place for us." So, while specifically this particular stanza is about Jewish refugees in 1939, right? This is a specific reference, but also it can be seen in a universal context even in the world of today because it is an anthem for any kind of displaced person who finds himself or herself in a crowded world who says, "You do not exist."
You do not exist, right? So, it is to be treated as a persona non grata, as someone who just does not exist, is not recognized by the world, right? I hope the first stanza is absolutely clear.
Let's now move to the second stanza. So, this is the way I'm going to explain it.
Detail every word, every line, every context, everything, okay? "Once we had a country and we thought it fair. Look in the atlas and you will find it there.
We cannot go there now, my dear. We cannot go there now," right? So, do not look at the illustrations. The companion could be of a similar age and not necessarily this looks like a father and son. It may not be. The illustrations may not be absolutely perfect, okay?
So, Auden here is shifting the focus from the crowded city of the present to the lost homeland of the past, right?
Because he's saying, "Once we had a country and we thought it fair. And you look in the atlas, you will actually find the country existing," right? If you're talking about Europe, it will be somewhere here, right? So, there. "But we cannot go there now, my dear. We cannot go there," right? So, it is highlighting the suddenness with which home can be so the home can be erased, sorry. Home can be sorry.
erased by political upheaval. That is the politics can completely obliterate, completely negate, completely remove a place which you called home, right? I'll just to give you a context.
Yesterday my daughter, who's doing her internship in Delhi, uh went to the home that where I grew up. I lived in that particular house for 18 years, you know, my entire childhood, schooling, college, early career, everything in that house. So, she went to that house. So, I know the house was obviously opened in my father's name, and so a third generation person. So, apparently the people who were there since 2002, they were extremely happy. We sold it about 30 years ago. So, they were very happy to see that, you know, someone from so long had come to see the house, you know, someone who had no idea. But she had my daughter had only heard stories about the house where my sister and I grew up, etc. So, she was very happy to see the house and, you know, just generally kind of picture eyes, "Okay, this used to be my father's study room, right?
This used to be the balcony. That's the temple that my her grandfather, that's my father got built." You know, so she was able to see the context and put our childhood in a context. All these things are very important, right? So, the home is no longer home for her, you know? We have sold it off, but there is still some kind of a connect. In this case, the refugee's home has been erased by political disturbances, political upheaval.
Let's Let me just tell you the word meanings first, okay? So, the word the use of the word fair, what exactly does it mean? Now, this has a double meaning here. One fair means beautiful. Fair also can mean pleasant, right? But it also implies a sense of justice, you know?
You have to be fair in your dealings.
Means you need to be honest and just in your dealings, right? So, it has a double meaning here. So, the tragedy is that a country which was believed as fair as in just, you know, providing justice, turned unfair, turned tyrannical, right? So, the word thought, you know, the word thought, "Oh, we thought it fair." No, we thought the country was fair, you know, that it would treat all citizens in an equal manner.
We thought, which means it did not turn out to be so, right? That's the first word.
"Look in the atlas." Atlas is a book of maps. It represents objective physical reality, you know? It is a physical reality. You look at an India map or whatever, right? Or any other country's map. The country exists on paper, physically speaking. But for these Jewish refugees, it has ceased to exist as an entity, as a place, as a country where they could actually live, right?
So, it is there physically on paper, on the atlas, but for them it's no longer there. What a tragedy, right?
"We cannot go there now," right? Go is not just to say traveling there.
It It implies return.
More importantly, it implies belonging. Okay? It implies See, when you understand every word in its depth, you know, the poetry also feels so much more beautiful and so much more, you know, meaningful, right? So, this is what is the word meanings which I wanted to highlight. So, this particular stanza in the historical context, it refers to the expansion of Nazi Germany because for many Jewish citizens, the country they called home for generations now it has become forbidden territory where they cannot go, okay? So, it shows the atlas, right? But he's he and his companion are no longer allowed to be there. It highlights the state of statelessness of the refugees.
They're in a limbo. Limbo means neither here nor there. It's a catch-22 situation. They are They have a country which exists on paper. Oh, we belong to Germany. Oh, yeah, of course, we have seen it in the atlas. But why don't you live there? We can't live there. It's physically present on the map in the atlas, but it is a city a country there they cannot live anymore that won't let them in.
You know, or even in the place they want to take refuge in. So, all these countries are there, right? It is a country. For example, it says, "Once we had a country and we thought it fair.
Look in the atlas and you will find it there. We cannot go there now." You know, you cannot go there now and you're not allowed into any other city also.
So, they are in a city of limbo. They are in a state of homelessness.
Now, the power of memory. Now, I want to analyze it further. The power of memory versus the map. The country on the map is colored, you know? It has colors. It is named Germany. It is visible on the atlas, but it is unreachable. You cannot go there. You cannot live there, right?
So, this illustrates the gap between geography, you know, as in land. You can see this physically in the atlas, and the concept of nationhood, safety, and rights. So, that is something very important.
Then there is the loss of sovereignty.
What exactly does it mean? The phrase because the poet is saying, "Once we had a country." It suggests a loss of ownership. "Once we had a country," right? It is in the past tense. So, the right of the refugees to their land has been taken away, has been stolen. A lock has been put there as the illustration shows, right? So, the loss of sovereignty, "Once we had a country, we do not have it anymore," right? Then the finality of the refrain. The repetition of "We cannot go there now" sounds like a door which has been completely shut on them, total exile.
And the tone of this particular stanza is one of being resigned to one's fate.
"We cannot go there now, dear," right?
So, there is a sense that Ab nahi ho sakta. We cannot do that anymore. And by using my dear, the speaker is kind of, you know, comforting the companion, saying that this is the harsh reality. The past is dead. Once we had a country, it is there on the atlas, but we cannot go there now. So, there is a sense of coming to terms with the [clears throat] harsh reality, the harsh truth, okay?
Let's now move to the third stanza.
"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.
Now, let me tell you the context. Now, Auden in this particular third stanza is introducing a very powerful comparison between the natural world and the cold, rigid world of human bureaucracy, right?
He's talking about the natural world.
He's talking about a tree, the yew tree, right? Which blossoms every spring, but then he's talking about old passports.
What exactly is the connection? Let's understand. Okay.
So, here yew is a species of evergreen trees which are found in different countries in Europe, okay? They're generally grown in church yards, okay?
Now, it is also considered a symbol of death. It is also considered a symbol of death because it is found in church yards and graveyards and is also considered poisonous in nature, right?
Uh it is also considered immortal because it can live for thousands of years, right? So, it's a tree that does not die easily. It lives for hundreds and thousands of years. So, in that sense it's immortal, but because it is grown in graveyards and church yards, it is considered uh a symbol of death, okay? So, that is the significance of this yew tree. Every spring it blossoms anew. Blossoms anew means it is kind of talking about the cycle of birth and death, okay? The cycle of birth and regeneration that every spring, not death, regeneration.
Every spring it blossoms anew means that the tree regenerates its life force. So, you can see a whole lot of flowers out here. It is in full blossom. And then he talks about the old passports. What is the significance of this old passports?
Passports is a very important element in this poem. So, you need to understand I certainly expect a question on related to the passports from this particular poem.
These represents the legal identity. You have a passport saying Republic of India. That is our legal identity whenever we step out of the country, right? So, these represents the legal identity of the refugees. But unlike the tree, which blossoms anew every spring, right?
Old passports, once they are killed or declared expired by the authority, right? They lose all power, the the If I have that passport which has been killed, I no longer have the legal identity, right? So, old passports means something which has expired. So, Auden is introducing here a very powerful comparison between the natural world and the rigid, cold world of human bureaucracy.
Let's understand the historical context.
So, while nature continues its cycle regardless of politics, the legal life of a human being is entirely dependent on a piece of paper that is a passport that does not blossom anew once it has been revoked. If it has been revoked, revoked means canceled. Once it has been canceled, it cannot come back unlike the yew tree which blossoms anew every spring. Now, historically what happened was for a refugee in that 1938-1939, a passport was the difference between life and death.
If you had a passport, you were alive.
If you did not have a passport or a passport which had been revoked or canceled, that means you are legally at least dead. So, if you were a German Jew and your passport was stamped with the letter J as written shown here in the illustration, it means that you will be denied entry into other country. They will say that, "Oh, this guy fellow has been removed from his own country, declared persona non grata in his own country. Why should we allow this person entry into our country?"
So, the first theme is of nature versus bureaucracy that Auden is creating the contrast between the yew tree which is old, yet it remains capable of renewal every spring, right? But the passport, which is also old like the yew tree, but its age makes it useless because it's a dead object that offers no protection because it has been canceled. The irony of the church yard. Now, by placing the uh tree in a church yard, that is a cemetery or a graveyard, Auden is hinting at death.
Even in the place of death, nature finds a way to renew itself like the yew tree.
However, the refugees who are still alive are treated like dead because of the paperwork of their passports which have been stamped with J and therefore they are considered to be not existing anymore, okay?
Then, the finality of human law that the refrain, "Old passports can't do that."
It mocks the progress of human civilization. What does it mean? That is we have created these kind of systems of passports, visas, the borders, the human borders. I mean, God did not create borders between countries, right? These are human, man-made borders, right? And these are very less forgiving. They are not forgiving at all. The human tree, which is a creation of God, is forgiving. It blossoms anew. It's never dead even though it is placed inside a cemetery, right? But the passport is much more harsh. It is not at all forgiving. Then the symbolism of the yew tree, very important. That is yew trees live for long. While a tree may live for a millennium, hundred years, a person's right to exist in a country can vanish the moment a government official decides their papers are no longer valid. That these papers are not valid, you do not exist, right? There is a movie which was made by Satish Kaushik, I think, with Pankaj Tripathi. It was called Kagaz or something, which was on a similar kind of a thing, not a refugee, but something to do with I haven't seen the movie, but something to do with how he has to produce papers in order to prove that he is actually alive, right? So, this is the symbolism of the yew. Again, something which can come at least as a reasoning question, I would assume, right? So, the three stanzas, I hope, are absolutely clear. Let's now move to the fourth stanza.
The consul banged the table and said, "If you have got no passport, you are officially dead." So, it is continuing the refrain, the idea, the talk of the passport from the previous stanza to this stanza. "But we are still alive, my dear. But we are still alive." No, the consul is essentially a government official who is appointed to live in a foreign city. For example, you have the consul general of the USA in different cities in India, of India in different cities in the world. So, this is to protect the interest of their country's citizens and handles passports and visas.
But in this poem, the consul, the consul general it is generally called, he represents the cold and the very unfeeling gatekeeper of society. He's not someone who is making you feel safe safe. So, in this stanza, uh Auden is highlighting the terrifying power of bureaucracy. That is bureaucracy, how actually it can instead of providing you with comfort, it can actually terrify you. So, here the consul, who is a government official in a foreign country, acts almost like a powerful, god-like figure who has the power and the authority to define whether a human being is dead or alive as per government papers. Purely based on government paperwork, not according to biology, but according to the government papers whether this particular person is dead, recognized, or alive, right? So, that is something which is highlighted in this particular stanza. So, let's understand the historical context of this particular stanza. Why is Auden speaking about this in stanza number four? During the 1930s, Jewish people tried to flee Germany. Many countries at the same time refused to grant them visas unless they had a passport in their country of origin, which is Germany. But Germany had stamped J on their passports, which meant that their passports had been revoked.
Now, this created a difficult or a catch-22 kind of a situation for these refugees because they could not stay in Germany because they were being persecuted, they were being targeted by the Nazis, but they could not at the same time enter a new country because their papers were dead, right? Their papers had been revoked. Their passport had been revoked. So, that was the problematic situation as far as the uh Jews were concerned. So, this stanza, to my mind, is the most chilling stanza of this entire uh poem. This one and there is another stanza which comes a little later because it shows how easily a human being can be erased, can be declared as dead, non-existent just by paperwork, just by the stroke of a pen, or by a cold official's authority. So, that is something which is highlighted in this particular stanza.
So, let's do the analysis of this. So, this particular stanza shows the conflict of two particular realities, right? So, the consul banging on the table and saying, "Now, let me actually first tell you the word meanings."
That's something which I've missed. I'm sorry. So, the banging on the table is an important phrase because what it conveys is a gesture of authority, a gesture of authority, impatience, uh a sense of finality. It shows that the official is not interested in the request that has been made for mercy, that please let us inside this new country. He's only interested in the rules, right? Like you have some aircraft people, you know, even if you are 2 minutes late, right?
They'll say, "Sorry, the gates are closed. We cannot let you in. The rules are rules." They don't care that there could have been a medical emergency on the way. There could have been a family emergency on the way.
They I mean, some airport officials There are some very nice ones also, but some airport officials try to be very, very tightfisted about it. Another important line in word in this particular stanza is officially dead, which is referring to a legal status.
Biologically, obviously, the person or and his companion are alive. But, while they're biologically alive, they have no legal existence because their passports have been revoked. As a result, they cannot work, they cannot travel, or they cannot seek any kind of residence in any other country. They cannot seek protection from the law.
Okay.
Now, let me go back to the analysis. So, this is therefore a conflict of two realities where Auden is creating a clash between the bureaucratic reality, officially dead, and biologically reality, still alive. That is what is highlighted because if you see the lines, it says, "If you have got no passport, you are officially dead." But, the person The poet is telling the companion, "But, we are still alive." This is the biological reality. This is an extremely important stanza in this particular poem. The tragedy is that in the modern world, the bureaucratic authority carries more weight than the heartbeat of a human being, which is why I've shown the heartbeat out here. The heart will show, "I am alive." No, you're legally dead because your passport has been revoked. Then, it in turn, it conveys a sense of dehumanization. You are not considering that person to be a human being. So, the consul does not see people, he sees documents. Very important line. Please note this down. Okay.
Because when you write things in a stark manner, the examiner will think that this student has got the real nerve of this particular poem. By banging the table, that's another very rude and loud and cruel gesture, he's treating the human crisis only as administrative annoyance, which means that he's annoyed that, "Oh God, these refugees have come again to seek asylum in this particular country." He's not happy about it. He's not pleased about it. So, he's reducing a life-and-death struggle to a yes or no on a form. That's all that matters. What does the paperwork essentially say? This is again very important. Then, there is this refrain at in the last line of the poem, "But, we are still alive, my dear, but we are still alive."
You're kind OF REAFFIRMING, "NO, BUT WE ARE STILL ALIVE." RIGHT? It's a statement of fact, but more importantly, it's also a quiet act of rebellion.
[clears throat] Very important. Please mark this in your notebook. It's an act of rebellion, "But, we are still alive." He may say according to the old passport that we are officially dead, but we are still alive. The symbolism of the table Now, this is again very important. There's a table on which he bangs. It is a physical barrier. Like you see, I've always found this extremely rude that, you know, in many of these official counters, you go to a railway inquiry counter, or you go to a bank, you will have to bend down. There will be a glass, and the place to speak will be below. So, it is I always feel that it is a legacy of the colonial rule that you kind of have to bend down and then ask. It's like your body kind of indicates as if you are a subordinate to that person who's sitting at the other end of the counter. Similarly, the table here is acting like a physical barrier between the powerful consul and the powerless, who are the refugees, right?
So, that's again an important symbolism in this particular chapter poem.
Let's now move to stanza number five. I hope you're understanding and also enjoying the detailed explanation. "Went to a committee, they offered me a chair.
They asked me politely to return next year. But, where shall we go today, my dear? But, where shall we go today?"
Now, here Auden is capturing the polite and the deadly face of bureaucracy.
There is a difference. The difference is that the table has been removed, and they now are offering him a chair. Now, that means they are being a little more polite. So, let's understand the word meanings. Committee Committee is a group of people appointed to handle a specific task, in this case, the asylum or the refugee board. Asylum is to take refuge in a particular country. It represents how when a group decides, a single person can feel the weight of whatever decisions are made.
"Offered me a chair." It is a It is a gesture of surface level politeness. That they are being polite on the outside. That, you know, it's not like the previous stanza where the consul bangs on the table as a gesture of rude authority. Here, they are offering him a chair, right? So, they are being polite on the outside. So, it suggests a very formal, professional kind of an atmosphere, which kind of masks that kind of covers up the lack of empathy. That you are offering him a chair to make you feel that, you know, we are going to treat you in a very nice, humane manner. But, the message, the actual treatment is still pretty much the same. And then, they say politely to return next year.
So, the end result is the same. So, it describes the manner of the rejection.
Yes, the manner of the rejection is not rude. It is polite. But, the And the committee is not being cruel. It's not banging on the table. It is not shouting. They are being polite, but they still do not kind of accede to his request. They say, "Return next year."
As if it is possible.
So, here Auden is capturing the polite but deadly face of bureaucracy. So, the historical context is that in the years leading up to 1939, international conferences were held to discuss the Jewish refugee crisis, which were which many countries in Europe and in the world were facing. While many nations expressed sympathy, very few were willing to change their laws or accept more people. So, this is the historic historical context to this particular stanza. So, in the analysis, what we need to understand is that these committees are wearing the mask of politeness. So, they are treating the speaker politely, offering him a chair, speaking politely. However, this politeness is a weapon.
Just like banging on the table was a weapon, this politeness is also a weapon because it allows that particular committee of officials to deny help.
Okay, but you're saying it in a nice manner, perhaps with a smile, while maintaining a sense of decency. So, it kind of establishes the disconnect between a comfortable official and a desperate refugee. He has been given a chair. He's not been given a home. He has been given just that little space of a chair temporarily, but not a home, not even a whole. So, the the request is considered to be I mean, impossible by the officials. And what they say in return is also impossible because to ask a refugee to return next year, it is ignoring the urgency of the situation. Can they go back and live in Germany for another year? They can't. They don't understand the urgency, the desperation of the refugee.
The chair is an ironical kind of a reference because they offer him a chair to sit for a few minutes, that little space on the chair, but they refuse to offer him a place where he can actually live. Right? So, he can sit, but he cannot live in that country. So, it is a temporary, hollow substitute for home.
Please note everything down which I have written out here. Then, the shift in the refrain. What What does the refrain say in the third line?
"But, where shall we go today, my dear?
Where shall we go today?" It kind of conveys a sense of desperation. "Where shall we go today?" It's like, you know, "What shall we eat today?
What shall I do without a job?" You know, that the sense of desperation, right? The refrain changes from a statement of fact to a desperate, practical question. "Where shall we go today?" We don't have a place to go today. We are homeless. We are shelterless.
We do not have a place to go to. They treated us politely, but they turned down our request also.
So, the key themes in this stanza which I want to highlight is the bureaucratic indifference. The committee format allows individuals to hide behind a collective decisions. "Oh, four of us have taken this decision together in a polite manner, offering him a chair, speaking to him politely." Right? It makes it easier to ignore the human being standing in front of them. They do not see what is going on in that human being's mind, in that refugee's mind.
Then, the luxury of time that the refugee does not have, right? There is a gap between those who have time, right?
The committee, and the refugees who do not have time. "Return next year" is not something which they can do. And that is something which the committee does not manage to see. You know, it does not manage to see.
Then, what it highlights is civilized cruelty.
And there is this contrast between stanza five and stanza four, which is again something a possible question. If I was setting the paper, I would ask these kind of questions. So, Auden is suggesting that cruelty is to bang on the table as well as to refuse with a polite smile because the end result in both cases is the same. Whether you refuse with a polite smile or whether you bang on the table, your answer is still no, right? So, the word politely is perhaps the most chilling word out here because it suggests that the people who are denying the refugees safety in that country believe that they're being perfectly reasonable. It's like, you know, uh one of my wife's professors used to say, you know, when you're writing a report, they say, uh oh uh the man was brutally killed. So, he used to apparently ask Professor Uman, Thomas Uman, uh oh, is there a way to kill in a nice manner?
I mean, his point was there is no need for the word brutally there because killing will have to be brutal. There is nothing like killing in a very nice manner, right? Similarly here, they're saying it with politeness, but the end result is the same as far as the refugees. So, from a refugee's point of view, whether you're banging on the table or whether you're saying it politely, it makes no difference to the end result, right? Only the difference is that the committee feels, oh they're they're being very reasonable that we have said it politely. We offered him a chair, right? That kind of a thing.
Let's now move to stanza number six.
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. So, Auden in this particular stanza moves from the private offices of officials, the committee or the consul, into the public space, into the public arena. And this stanza illustrates how political rhetoric, now he's talking about netas, netagiri, politicians, political talk, they kind of stir up fear.
If they come, they will take away your jobs. If they come, they will take away your bread. If they come, you will have to stay hungry. So, creating that sense of fear and paranoia, which unfortunately so many politicians still do in today's day and age. And they turn the general population against the refugees, right? So, this is now the political arena, not the committee, not the bureaucracy of the consul.
Just move it ahead.
Yeah. So, the public meeting, what does the public meeting mean? It's It means a gathering or uh you know, where community concerns are discussed openly.
It represents the voice of the people as shown in this illustration or public opinion in general. The speaker got up, the speaker most likely here refers to a politician who has the power to influence the emotions of the crowd.
Daily bread, they will steal our daily bread. What does it mean? The phrase has biblical origins. It comes from the Bible, referring to the basic necessities necessary to survive in this world. In this context, basically, the refugees have been spoken about as an economic threat that if they come, they will take away the resources which otherwise would have come to you. They would take away the resources, so therefore, they should not be let inside our country, right?
Then, if we let them in, them. Now, this is again interesting. If he could have said, if we let the refugees in, but them is to kind of use a pronoun, right?
So, by using them, the speaker is basically stripping the refugees, the speaker as in the politician, he's stripping because it is a quote by the politician, not the poet. He's stripping the refugees of the basic individual identity. Even as a refugee, they don't have a name, but at least it was talking about a group. But by saying them, it is othering them, you know, what I said at the beginning? He's making it into an other group that, you know, they don't belong to us. If we let them in, right?
They are not us. If we let them in, uh he's making them into a nameless and a mass which is threatening, a mass or group of people which is threatening because they will steal our daily bread.
So, Darana, So, that kind of a fear psychosis which politicians unfortunately are very good at stirring up. So, that's what Auden is doing, that political rhetoric is used to stir up fear and turn the general population against the refugees. So, create the mahol, the mood among the people where they turn against the refugees. Again, let me tell you the historical context.
In the 1930s, anti-refugee sentiment often relied on the economic threat argument, right? So, you give them the economic threat because when your econom when your purse is threatened, when your money is threatened, everyone feels a little, you know, that I need to be careful, right? So, politicians in various countries argued that if you accept the Jewish refugees, that would lead to job losses, that would lead to food shortage for the native population. And by using the phrase daily bread, the speaker in the poem appeals to the basic fears of the working class, suggesting that sub kill you may need it. There is not enough for everyone, so jitna hai usme hamara hi kaam chal sakta hai. Only our things can be managed. We cannot feed the population which is trying to come from outside. So, therefore, we should refuse entry to all these Jewish refugees, right? So, that is the point which is being made by the politicians.
The use of othering, which I just now told you, the use of the pronoun them, this is a classic propaganda technique designed to make the audience see the refugees as enemies rather than human beings who desperately need help, right?
The other thing which I just now told you, the economic fear-mongering, the claim that the refugees will steal our daily bread is again a very powerful metaphor for economic anxiety. It suggests that the presence of the foreigner, because the Jewish are foreigners, right? That will lead to the starvation of the citizens in our country, make them more poor. So, therefore, we should refuse [clears throat] them entry. Then, the speaker of the poem, the politician, realizes I mean, the the poet realizes, I mean, who is speaking, he kind of realizes shock, he was talking of you and me.
He was talking of you and me that we will steal their daily bread. So, the irony is that the speaker attended a public meeting, perhaps hoping that the public will be better than the committee or the consul. Instead, they find themselves becoming the target of the community's suspicion and resulting hostility because the speaker, that is the politician, has turned the community also against the refugees. You get the point? So, that is what has happened in this particular stanza. Again, very important stanza because it kind of builds up to the complete rejection, complete no being said to the refugees in different countries.
Stanza seven. Thought I heard the thunder rumbling in the sky, it was Hitler over Europe saying they must die.
Oh, we were in his mind, my dear. Oh, we were in his mind. I'm getting goosebumps while I'm saying this. The first reference to Adolf Hitler, the very specific threat that they are receiving from that person. So, in that sense, stanza seven is the standout stanza in this entire poem because the poet, he's moving from the polite rejections of the committee, the rude refusal by the consul, and the rhetoric of the public speaker, that is a politician, to the exact source of the terror of the refugees, the man who has caused all this, that is Adolf Hitler. So, this stanza identifies the specific threat that has driven these refugees away from their home, okay? So, if you look at the word meanings for this particular stanza, thunder, what exactly does it mean? Now, it can mean basically this what I've shown in the illustration. However, this is while it is a natural phenomena, it has been used as a metaphor for the drumming up of war and the aggressive speeches of a dictator called Hitler, right? So, thunder in that sense is both the literal meaning as well as the metaphorical meaning. Hitler, by naming the Nazi leader clearly by name, Auden roots the problem. He basically says this is this man is the source of all the problems that the poor refugees are facing. They must die. Now, this is a very chilling and a very terrifying kind of a sentence. They must die, right? It is a direct order of genocide. They must die. They, plural, they must die. And unlike the committee that is offering them hope by saying, you return next year, this particular voice of Hitler saying they must die offers absolutely no hope, no hope of a return next year, no hope of a delay. It's just giving an order, they must be killed right away, right? In his mind, we were in his mind. What does this mean? This refrain.
This kind of suggests an obsessive hatred. We are in his mind.
He wants to kill us. He's thinking about us. So, we are in his mind. He's thinking about us. That is something, you know, it shows an obsessive form of hatred, right? That we are not just being killed on the side as a collateral damage. You know, we put a bomb, 10 people got killed, even people who are innocent got killed. No, we were in his mind saying that he's coming after us.
He wants to destroy us. He wants to get us killed. So, it means that we are the deliberate targets of the ideology of this man named Hitler. Okay.
Now, the historical context by 1939, Adolf Hitler's intentions towards the Jewish population in Europe, mainly Germany actually, were no longer a secret. The thunder refers to the literal expansion of German territory.
You have studied this in class 10. The invasion of Poland on in September on September 1, 1939. The phrase they must die reflects the state-sponsored systemic murder of millions of Jews, right? This is very important. Now, let's do this analysis. It's nature versus man-made in the first line, the speaker mistakes, sorry.
Mistakes me mistake, okay. Mistakes the sounds of war to the sounds of rhetoric for thunder. The word thought conveys the mistake, you know, we thought, right? This suggests that the evil occurring is so massive that it feels like a force of nature. We thought it was thunder, but it's actually something else. The scale of the threat, the phrase Hitler over Europe, you know, Hitler is looming large over Europe. He has He's attacked He attacked Poland in September 1939 to start the war, right? It creates an image of a giant menacing figure. We are all influenced impacted by the threat of Adolf Hitler. It casts a shadow over the entire continent. It emphasizes the helplessness of these two refugees who are trying to find a corner to hide in.
Then, the intimacy of hatred. Usually to be in someone's mind, I was thinking about you. What does it mean? You know, it conveys something positive. It conveys affection. It conveys love. It conveys something caring, right? But here, the most powerful man is thinking about these two specific individuals only to ensure their destruction. This is an extremely important point if you are asked to explain only this one line. He was thinking about us, right? So, that is something which conveys a totally different kind of an emotion. Then, the poem has now moved. If you see the transition of the poem from stanza one, where you're talking about no place to no papers in stanza four to no life, right? In stanza seven. Now, he wants us dead. So, the threat is no longer about the lack of a home that we will be homeless. It's about being killed. It's about the presence of someone who is out to get you killed. So, the theme is the reality of evil that is Auden drops the metaphors of yew trees in the churchyard or the atlases to name the perpetrator directly. He's not talking about the atlas in an indirect way. He's not talking about the yew trees in an indirect way. He's talking about Adolf Hitler as the person who is the cause of all their misery. The thunder in this stanza is a classic example of also foreshadowing. Apart from metaphor, which is the more major poetic device, it also prepares us for what is going to happen.
Then, stanza number eight.
Saw a poodle in a jacket fastened with a pin. Saw a door open and a cat let in, but they weren't German Jews, my dear, but they weren't German Jews. So, Auden here is comparing the treatment of the domestic animals like a poodle and a cat to the treatment of the Jewish human refugees. So, poodle in a jacket is often seen as a symbol of luxury, right?
Look at how comfortable the dog is the poodle is looking, right?
Pampered domesticity, very upper class luxurious life. And the jacket on the animal shows that he's being protected by the from the cold and being cared for with so much of detail. Even a pin has been put in to ensure that, you know, the detail is there about the care for the comfort of the animal. Even something which the refugees lack. So, this is a very sharp contrast. The poodle is a very sharp contrast to the life of the the present life of the refugees.
Then, the German Jews, but they were not German Jews. For the first time in the poem, Auden very clearly explicitly names the identity of the speakers. And this kind of puts it in the historical context, which I've been explaining with every stanza. It tells you in the entire context that this is the context of this particular poem.
Let's look at the historical context.
So, the mention of the German Jews is crucial because at that time being a Jew from Germany meant that you were legally stripped of your rights by your own country, the country in which you were born, and you were viewed with suspicion and economic fear by people in other countries, by people in authority in other countries, be it a council, be it a committee of individual of officials, or by politicians and the general public. So, the irony of care of the poodle and the cat that, you know, the animal is wearing a jacket, the refugees are probably exposed to the elements, right? Or the thunder of war. The The pin represents a level of domestic safety that is some completely missing in the life of the refugees. The open door, the image of a door opened for a cat, but the door is never open. I showed you the illustration with the doors with the locks, right? But the doors are all shut for the refugees. The cat is better than the refugees. That is what is being conveyed, right? So, the image of the door being opened for a cat is a direct contrast to stanza one, no place for us, and stanza five, the committee.
It requires the cat requires no passport, no visa. A cat requires no passport, no visa, and no public meeting to be let in, right? So, the cat and the poodle have life which is better than that of the refugees. The bitter refrain of they weren't German Jews. Okay, the cat and the poodle are not German Jews. So, in the eyes of the world, the identity of being a German Jew is less welcoming than that of the two animals. Dehumanization, and this is the most effective way of dehumanizing in the poem by showing that the animals are being treated more are cared for and treated with more love and affection and care.
Opening the door for them, Auden Auden shows that the refugees have been pushed to the complete bottom of the pyramid, right? So, you have the people, the non-Jews, etc., and the Jew refugees are at the complete bottom of the pyramid, even below the pets, even below who those people who live in holes, referring to stanza number one. So, they are at the complete bottom of the pyramid. That is what is being conveyed with the reference to the poodle and the cat.
Let's now move to stanza number nine.
Went down the harbor and stood upon the key. It is pronounced as key.
Saw the fish swimming as if they were free, only 10 ft away, my dear, only 10 ft away. Just to emphasize again, you know, this is A, this is A, and this is B. Key, free, away. Okay, the rhyme scheme. Auden uses the imagery of the natural world. You're seeing the fish out here. Once more to highlight the physical proximity of a freedom that remains legally and politically impossible for the refugees. Let's look at the word meanings. Harbor is a place on the coast where the ships take shelter. So, the ships take shelter. And in the context of the refugees, it it is a point of arrival or a point of departure, a point of potential point of escape to a new life. Key is a stone or a metal platform lying alongside, projecting into water or standing to unload load this thing, okay? So, they are kind of, you know, standing on the key suggests the possibility that the refugees are looking at the possibility of living leaving, but they are still stuck on land, you know, they cannot escape. As if they were free.
As if as if. To the speaker, the fish don't just swim. The use of as if suggests that in the speakers in the mind of the speakers, the concept of freedom has become just like a dream. As if, you know, they were free. You know, that's what it conveys because the speakers the the refugees, they are not free people.
So, the harbor was a site of immense tension during the 1930s because the ships carried Jewish refugees. See, every time you know the historical context, if you put in those two lines, it will give your answer that much more weight, which is why I've taken the effort of putting the historical context to every poem or every stanza. The ships carried the Jewish refugees across the ocean only to be turned away from the ports in Cuba, the USA, in Canada, etc. And being at the harbor meant that you are, you know, feeling safe, but without proper correct papers, that safety is pretty much unreachable, you know, that safety doesn't mean anything.
Natural law versus human law. Like the yew tree, like the cat, like the the fish here in this stanza, they exist outside of human bureaucracy. You know, they are not kind of detained in any way. They do not need visas to swim in the ocean. They don't have a nationality. Nobody asked a fish whether you're German or American or British, right? Their freedom is biological, right? While the refugees imprisonment is in political, very important, right?
So, their freedom is biological, right?
Whereas these guys have been politically excluded. The key as a dead end. Now, usually the key is a place of transition. That is you cross the key and you can actually be free. But for the refugees, it's a place where stagnated. They are actually stuck there, right? They're standing at the edge of the world of land. They can go again. They can watch the free fish, right? But they continue in a state of grace which is denied to the refugees. The fish are free as if they are free, but these people do don't have even that kind of freedom.
The as if of freedom by saying that the fish swim as if they were free, the speaker reflects on his own uh worldview that they can no longer imagine freedom as a natural state of being. They see it as something remarkable and distant.
You know, it is not something which they can actually get. The repetition in the refrain only 10 ft away creates a sense of longing.
You know, it is so near and yet so far kind of a feeling, right? The physical reach of the speaker towards a life that is so close yet entirely forbidden. They cannot get that kind of a life.
Let's look at stanza number 10. 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. So, the birds are not German or stateless. They are simply birds, right?
They They do not belong to any kind of uh nationality. So, at their ease, what does Sorry, at their ease, what does this particular phrase convey? This means without any worry, without any anxiety, without any restrictions. So, the birds are relaxed and acting according to their natural instincts.
You know, they don't have any of the stress that the refugees are uh facing. Therefore, they are singing at their ease. Politicians, they had no politicians. What we were referred to, I think, in stanza seven.
Right? So, represent the source of the problems of the refugees. The politicians are the ones who make the laws, the lawmakers. They define the borders, who can come in, who cannot come in. They create the committees and give speeches about stealing daily bread. Then they weren't the human race. So, by referring This refers to the entire species. By separating the birds from the human race, Auden suggests that being human has become synonymous with cruelty, with becoming the victims of bureaucracy, of their coldness, and being excluded. So, he's suggesting that even the birds are actually having a life which is better than what we are leading, right? So, the birds are not German, they are not Jews, they are not stateless. They are simply birds. So, the absence of politics The birds can sing at their own ease specifically because they had no politicians. So, he's suggesting that the governments have actually made life more difficult and less free than that of a common bird. Look at the happiness on the face of the common bird singing, you know, being free and can go anywhere. Song as freedom for the refugees, speaking is dangerous like in the public meeting or involves like with the consul general which we saw earlier.
For the birds, singing is an effortless expression of existence. It can sing happily. It is not under any kind of restrictions. They do not need papers to sing in the trees, you know, they can be on their own. They don't need to produce any kind of papers. Their passports are not revoked. So, the refrain of exclusion We think of being human as a source of dignity. This is important. We think, you know, we are better off. But when you compare it with a bird, with a fish, with a cat, with a poodle, you realize that all of them actually better off than these refugees, right? So, it implies that being part of the human race is to be part of a race that actually punishes you, that persecutes you, that excludes you from your own kind. This is an extremely important point. The comparison with all the animals and fish and the birds. So, earlier the speaker envied the domestic animals, the poodles and the cats, the wild animals as in the fish.
And now the envy is directed at the birds because they lack politicians.
This is again something which can come as a question in your exam. So, this is something which you need to know. So, now we now move to stanza number 11.
Stanza 11. Dreamt I saw a building with a thousand floors, a thousand windows, and a thousand doors. Now, one of them was ours, but my dear, not one of them was ours. So, in this stanza, he's using a dreamscape to illustrate the psychological weight of being homeless in a world of abundance, right? So, there is a world of abundance. You're talking about a thousand windows, a thousand doors, a thousand floors, but not one of them was ours ours in order to re-emphasize the state of homelessness. So, he's moving from the physical world of woods and harbors into the subconscious and basically talking about a world of abundance in which the refugees just don't have anything. So, just let's look at the word meanings in this particular stanza.
When you're talking about a dream, this suggests the speaker's anxiety that it has also followed them into the it followed them into their sleep. That even when they are sleeping, they're still dreaming about their state of homelessness, right? So, it has become some kind of a fantasy which is not achievable, which can only be seen in a dream, not in reality. A thousand obviously a huge exaggeration out here.
So, he's using this particular number to emphasize the massive scale of human civilization and its infrastructure.
That so much is actually available. The mansions, the thousand floors, and also the holes in the first stanza, right?
The windows and doors The reference to the windows and the doors. Now, these are symbols of opportunity. These are symbols of entry. These are symbols of a particular kind of a privilege, right?
Uh that you can actually be inside one of that homes. So, a window allows you to look out uh at the world, whereas the door allows you a safe space. But none of that was ours. None of that belonged to the refugees.
So, the historical context is that the building with a thousand floors evokes the image of a modern-day skyscraper, right? Symbols of 20th century opulence, progress, architectural triumph. Now, these are buildings in New York, right?
Uh which was one of the major destinations for the Jewish refugees. It represents a world that is technologically advanced and it is actually capable of giving shelter to so many of those refugees, yet no. As we have seen in the poem so far, we will not give them any kind of shelter because they are refugees, because they do not have a legal passport, because according to their paperwork, they do not exist, right?
Now, it kind of conveys the scale of exclusion because by multiplying the floors, the doors, and the windows by a thousand, Auden is highlighting the mathematical cruelty of the situation. I would want you to include this particular phrase in your answers.
Just take a look at it. Okay.
Uh in a world with so much of room, not a single one is available to the refugees. That is what is being conveyed out here. The mathematical cruelty of the situation. Now, the dream as a nightmare. Now, while dreaming usually implies something positive, this is a nightmare of rejection. Another important phrase which I would want you to use in your answers. Even in the speaker's dream, in his imagination, in his subconscious state of mind, they cannot find a way to get inside the door. So, the repetition of thousand makes the building feel like an infinite kind of a structure, yet not having the space for them inside.
Door is meant to be opened. It is meant to provide you with space inside.
However, here every door so far in this poem has been a barrier of sorts. The consul's door, the committee's door, the door that was opened only for a cat.
Here the thousand doors represent a thousand numbers, yet all of none of them open for them. Then there is the perspective Now, the building The poem is getting a little complicated, so listen all this very carefully.
The refrain The The personal versus the massive. The refrain not one of them for us. That's what it says, right? It says not one of them was ours. So, the refrain not one of them was to bring the focus back to the two people, for you and me, right? So, the contrast is between the thousand and these two people, right? So, these two people are insignificant. Ideally speaking, they should be able to get space when there are thousand available, but no, they are not getting the space. So, the contrast between the two and the thousand is very stark. The thousand is the massive. The two is the personal tragedy, uh unhappiness, state of mind of these two refugees, right? So, the society is prioritizing the thousand over providing comfort and some bit of space for these two refugees.
Then the last stanza. Stood on a great plain in the falling snow, 10,000 soldiers marched to and fro looking for you and me, my dear, looking for you and me. This is again very chilling because in the final stanza, Auden brings the poem to a chilling and a very cinematic kind of conclusion.
I'm getting goosebumps. I don't know about you, but as I'm talking, you know, the the feeling of getting, you know, you're targeted. So, the great plain is referring to an open vast area as I have shown in this illustration. In literature, a plain often symbolizes a place where there is no place to hide.
You will be caught out anywhere on this plain, you will be visible, you will be seen and targeted, right? So, it exposes what? It exposes the vulnerability.
It exposes the vulnerability and the fact that they are completely exposed. Falling snow, right? Falling snow again symbolizes silence. When snow is falling, it's generally more silent, right? It kind of covers all the tracks, you know, so you cannot see the footprints because the snow kind of covers all the tracks.
It also adds to the physical hardship.
So, it represents a very cold, indifferent kind of nature that offers no warmth to those who are being targeted, who are being persecuted. The phrase describes to and fro.
March to and fro. It describes a very repetitive, mechanical movement of all the soldiers, the troops, right? So, they are kind of conducting some kind of a search for the refugees. And then he says, "Looking for you and me, my dear, looking for you and me." 10,000 soldiers. Again, this is again that was thousand, now this is 10,000, right? So, again, a state of exaggeration. It it it kind of implies the overwhelming power of the state compared to the two individuals, solitary individuals who are who can be easily targeted. The state is so powerful. So, while Hitler was mentioned in an earlier stanza, now you're talking about 10,000 soldiers.
So, it is the might of the state. So, another very important element in this entire poem is the state, the way it is shown, whether it is a politician, speaker, whether it is a consul, whether it is a committee, whether it is Adolf Hitler, or whether it is the 10,000 soldiers.
All these are representative of the might of the state, and I would want you to now be able to explain each one of them in detail, hopefully after this particular explanation. Then, so this stanza convey evokes the reality of the police state and the military might of the Nazi regime in Germany. By 1939, the machinery of the state was fully mobilized to locate, identify, detain, arrest the Jewish individuals.
The soldiers represent the physical enforcement under the orders of Hitler of the thunder that we had heard in stanza seven. So, that one, seven, and 12 are therefore interrelated. Okay?
The shift in scale. The poem has moved from a claustrophobia of a consul general, the paperwork, etc., to the terrifying emptiness of a great plain where you are vulnerable and where you are completely exposed, where you can be easily found out. So, the scale has expanded, but you are feeling even more trapped now. You can be easily identified and targeted, right? Uh you have become a prey for the predator. Who is the predator? The state is the predator. The relationship between the soldiers and the refugees is now that that of the hunter and the prey. They are not just marching, they are looking for you and me. This creates an immediate sense of life-threatening danger that they can see you, they can find you, they can identify you, they can eliminate you. So, they are looking for you and me. So, the danger is right there, you know, at your doorstep. It's no longer about getting entry into another country, it's about life that you can now be eliminated.
The silence of the snow. Now, that's again very chilling, right? It creates a very eerie kind of atmosphere where there is nobody out there to help you.
When there's snowfall, nobody steps out.
So, complete silence. There's a sense of eeriness, right? It contrasts with the thunder of stanza seven, which is loud.
So, from the loudness, now it is all absolute quiet and silence. So, while the thunder was a distant warning, the snow is a cold reality that surrounds them as they are being hunted, looking for you and me, right? So, the contrast between stanza seven's thunder and the quietness of the snowfall in stanza 12.
So, the finality of the refrain, "They're looking for you and me," is the most direct and frightening refrain in the poem. It confirms that despite 10,000, 10 million souls in stanza one in the city, or the thousand doors in the dream, the the entire focus of the 10,000 soldiers, the state's military might, is on finding these two specific, officially dead people.
They do not exist. According to their passports, they do not exist. Yet, these 10,000 soldiers are actually searching and looking for these people in order to eliminate them, right? So, that is the, you know, you feel very, very vulnerable and weak when the might of the state comes after you.
That becomes very, very terrifying. And that's what is conveyed. So, it is a very sad and a very unhappy, bleak kind of ending because the poet is not offering any kind of resolution. He's not offering us He's not giving us a happy kind of an ending, right? So, the blues rhythm is there. It concludes on a, you know, it makes you feel very tense. What happened after that? We don't know, right? So, leaving the reader with the image of two people standing in the cold, in the snowfall, just minutes before being found by those 10,000 soldiers, right? So, it's not a very happy ending. It does not offer you any kind of hope, and that was pretty much the state in Germany at that time, right? So, two people against 10,000 soldiers. It summarizes the central tragedy of the poem, the immense, organized power of the mighty state, right? Of the human race to destroy two vulnerable refugees. That's what is being conveyed.
Let's now look at the poetic devices which have been used in the poem. I'll keep I'll give you a couple of examples for each so that it's easy for you to understand. Thought I heard the thunder rumbling in the sky, it was Hitler over Europe. Now, this is a metaphor. The thunder is a metaphor for Hitler's aggressive rhetoric, aggressive rhetoric and the approaching storm of the war. Some are living in mansions, some are living in holes.
Mansion Now, please always remember that it's quite possible that more than one poetic device has been used in a particular line. But you have to highlight the more important poetic device. That's how it works. Because in many cases, it could be a case of alliteration, it could be a case of simile also. It could be a case of a metaphor also. It could be a case of a oxymoron and personification also. So, please remember that there could always be two or more poetic devices used in a particular line, right? Uh these are metaphors for extreme ends of social status and security. Mansions on one hand, holes on the other. Stanza one, emphasizing that even the poorest residents have a fixed place, unlike the res- refugees. Now, this is the hole, this these are the bungalows or the mansions. Uh irony. Saw a poodle in a jacket fastened by a with a pin. It's ironic that a dog is provided with a tailored coat for warmth while the human refugees are left out in the snow, political falling snow, and being hunted down by 10,000 soldiers. If you've got no passport, you are officially dead.
Again, a case of irony, uh being told that you are dead just because you don't have a paperwork done for it.
Repetition. My dear is there in almost every line, third line of every stanza.
It creates an intimate refrain that reminds the reader that this is a personal conversation between two refugees or victims. A thousand floors, a thousand windows, a thousand doors.
The repetition of the word thousand emphasizes the massive, overwhelming scale of the world that has no room for the two individuals. Then, juxtaposition. Saw the fish swimming as if they were free, only 10 ft away. The absolute freedom of the fish is juxtaposed with the total entrapment of the refugees standing just 10 ft away on the key. The birds in the trees, they had no politicians. Again, the peaceful existence of the birds is juxtaposed with the human world, which is complicated and ruined by political interference, which does not give you the paperwork to the refugees. Then, hyperbole. The 10,000 soldiers marched to and fro. This illustrates the massive, disproportionate military might of Germany at that time being used to hunt down two people out here, right? Then, say the city has 10 million souls. The huge number emphasizes the anonymity and indifference of the masses towards the plight of the two. The majority does not care about the minority. I'm saying very important line, which again can be used in your answers. Then, symbolism. The passport is a symbol of legal identity and the power of the state to either accept or erase a person's existence itself, right?
The yew tree. Now, it's illustration and they have put United States of America.
It could be Germany in this case. The yew tree symbolizes the endurance and renewal of nature, which blossoms anew human structures like passports only decay. So, this is again an example of the poetic device of symbolism, right?
So, with this I come to the end of this detailed explanation video on Refugee Blues. As I said, it is a complex poem where you need to understand both the historical context and what the poet is trying to convey in every stanza. Many stanzas are extremely important and I'm pretty sure that you would get some very meaningful questions from this particular poem and I expect after this explanation video and the test papers which will follow very soon on studywithsudhir.com website, you will be able to do justice to this particular poem. I'll see you then with the test papers after we have finished with the entire syllabus and I'll see you with the next story or poem or Pygmalion very soon. Tata. Bye-bye. Thank you very much. Namaskar.
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