Refugee Blues: How Auden Used Language to Create Effect

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How does Auden use language to create effect ? Throughout the poem Auden uses a variety of different techniques and ideas to really make a impact. However for me one of the main ways of doing it in this poem was through the use of the language he chose. The poem in set around the late 1930 and is a interpretation of how the Jewish people viewed the country they were living in. One main key effect of the language for me was the repetition of the sentence in the last line of each stanza. This really helped to emphasize to the audience how badly he felt that the people of his kind were being treated. In addition to this there is a repetitive use of the phrase of ‘my dear’ suggest he is speaking to his wife or a family member who doesn’t truly understand the extent of the situation. Each stanza seems to intensify the situation in the poem. For example the first stanza starts of by telling us that they the homeless, though there are millions of people in the city who have some kind of home but the refugees have nowhere to go. The phrase ‘yet there is no place for us my dear’ suggests how they view society as unfair in the way that it treats people. The poem then moves on to talk about how they cannot even leave the country due them not having a passport and the poem describes people in that position as ‘officially dead’ suggesting they have absolutely nowhere or no-one to turn to. Though the poet describes the committee advice as ‘polite’ the fact that they were asked to return ‘next year’ clearly presents the fact that no real help was offered and that they were still left with nowhere to go for today. The poet also uses many contrasts throughout the piece such as ‘ten million souls’, ‘ten thousand soldiers’. Which again really helped to emphasize the ruthlessness of society and how deeply unfair they felt it was as there were so many people out

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