• QUESTIONS ABOUT REFUGEE BLUES

• 1.   Why did he choose the two words Refugee and blues in the title?
• 2.   Which popular musical form did Auden adopt for this poem?
• 3.   Why did he choose the blues form for this poem?
• 4.   Focus on the first line of each stanza. Do you notice a device which is common to almost all of them?
• 5.   Point out images that can be defined as poetic and images belonging to everyday life. Which prevail?
• 6.   The poem is built up on a series of contrasting images. What are they? Explain their meaning.
• 7.   Though the speaker is a German Jew complaining about the situation of his people, his words hint at issues having a more general relevance What are those issues?
• 8.   What is meant by the impossibile blossoming of passports?
• 9.   What examples of bureaucratic indifference to their plight are given?
• 10.   Auden is a writer of great wit, a quality that never deserts him when writing about dark subjects, as in the present poem. Note his use of irony to increase pathos.