Refugee Blue though lyrical is structured as an original blues song it is based on the plight of the Jewish in Nazi Germany,

it presents the pain and suffering the Jewish refugees went through simultaneously discussing the situation of numerous present refugees. The poet, W.H Auden helps his audience understand the idea of the poem in a little more depth, by using juxtaposition. In the first few stanzas the poet uses juxtaposed words to portray the loss of Identity these refugees feel, he talks about economic status when he says living in mansions and living in holes which not only shows the contrast between rich and poor but also highlights the fact that they are not categorized under either, he then uses reality and faade, though their country is present in the atlas its not really their country anymore. Furthermore he uses grows an old yew, blossoms a new when looked at closely can be inferred as how though the people around the world will have moments filled with love, hope and freedom but these refugees will never have that, they will not be able to blossom, achieve and improve as they are treated as outsiders. In the fourth stanza he uses dead and alive, explaining how these refugees are now officially dead without their passports and even though they belong to a certain country; they have no proof of it hence repeating the idea of no identity, therefore metaphorically dead. These refugees have been put down time and again and the poet is trying to capture a sense of hopelessness as he says went to a committee.return next year where shall we go today Auden is constantly trying to help his audience understand the pain and hopelessness the refugees feel. Moreover in the next stanza the poet says came to a public meeting, if we let them in from which we infer that though it was a public meeting, the refugees were not allowed in. But are refugees not people? By using these juxtaposing phrases Auden emphasizes that these refugees were alienated, they were not seen as living humans, instead as a different kind, lower than the lowest and undeserving of anybodys sympathy Till now refugees were compared to other humans, but in the later stanzas Auden uses animals. He says a poodle in a jacket.., ..A door opened and a cat let in which emphasizes that even cats and dogs have more importance than refugees, here these animals are treated with love and affection unlike the treatment received by the refugees. The poet also uses the swimming fishes and the flying birds that freely sing to portray the freedom that animals have but is taken away from humans by our politicians. The poet ironically implies that even though it is humans who are on the top, it is the animals that have more freedom and independence. Later the poet says I saw a building with a thousand floors ...not one of them was ours emphasizing the fact that they are homeless and need help. And in the final stanza the poet presents the insanity of these politicians as they send ten thousand soldiers to look for two people who are harmless as we can see when he says ten thousand soldiers marched..looking for you and me.

Yousra Ahmed