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Analysis Of Refugee Blues

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The poem Refugee Blues was written by Wilfred. H .Auden in 1939 during World War Two. “Refugees Blues” is in reference to the abuse of human rights and the suffering, despair and isolation that all refugees experience during their journey of survival. The poet uses a range of techniques such as contrast, emotive language and personification to convey the hardship refugees had to endure. The refugees in this case were the Jews.

In the title “Refugee Blues”, “blues” is mentioned. Blues was a sad slow music which consisted of three line stanza and a lot of repetition for example “old passports can 't do that my dear old passports can 't do that.” The effect and purpose of these repetitions is for the poet to force the reader to linger on any points he feels are important, hence making a longer lasting impact on the reader. In this case repetition is used to regularly insinuate a sense of desperation and isolation. In addition to this, the first two lines of the stanza rhyme. Blues music was created and first sung by the African slaves who would sing to convey their hardship and isolation from others. Blues music to the African slaves was a strategy to explain their feelings and help them cope with their suffering. Auden was trying to draw similarities to the Jewish refugees and the injustices of the Africans slaves. This links to refugees as they have to run away from their fears constantly and the Jews were homeless and isolated from other people due to religious

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