Question

The title, 'Refugee Blues' encapsulates the theme of the poem. Comment.

Answer 1

Blues are African-American forms of ballads that originated by the end of the 19th century. They primarily are melancholic and sad and can be called as “the sad black slave's songs”. In this Blue Ballad, Auden narrates the suffering of the Jews by Nazis, their persecution, the holocaust, the concentration camps, the rise of Fuhrer, and Nazism. The poem revolves around a Jewish couple who escaped Nazi Germany and emigrated to the United States of America. These refugees now sing this Blue talking of their agony and pain that they have nowhere to go to.