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A short class with Sarah and her students. The other ways are under More.
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What kind of stanza does Auden use, and how are its lines related?
A tercet. The first two lines rhyme and the third line does not.
Good. That is the AAB pattern. What is special about the third line?
It is the longest, and it seems to say the same thing twice, with a word of address in the middle.
That pause is called a caesura. Why would a poet want it?
It makes the speaker sound weary, as if he repeats the statement to himself.
Exactly. It is the blues effect in print.
Where do you find irony in the poem?
In stanza 4, because the consul treats living people as if they did not exist.
In stanza 5, because the committee is polite but gives no help.
And a third?
Stanza 8, because a pampered pet is welcomed where the refugees are not.
What do all three share?
The gap between what we expect, help or welcome, and what actually happens.
That gap is the definition of irony.
Why does Auden use such ordinary words for such a terrible subject?
What would happen if he had used grand, emotional language?
It might sound like acting. Plain words sound more truthful.
Yes. That is understatement. The speaker does not shout, so the reader fills in the horror.
So the quietness is a technique and not a weakness.
Precisely. Remember that in your critical appreciation.
twelve tercets rhymed AAB, with a longer closing line, in the manner of the blues and the ballad.
a statement, a tender address and a repeat of the statement, with a caesura at the address, so the pattern acts as a refrain.
the consul, the committee, the pet and the free creatures show gaps between expectation and reality and between the refugees and the rest of the world.
the passport, tree, harbour, fish, birds, building, plain and soldiers stand for identity, belonging, escape, freedom, exclusion, exposure and violence.
thunder stands for Hitler's voice, bread for livelihood, and large numbers for the world's scale and the couple's fear.
simple words, understatement and a quiet tone let the facts carry the emotion.
Device, stanza, effect (refrain pattern): in every stanza the closing line repeats a statement around a tender address; it echoes the blues, shows the speaker's weariness and keeps the poem intimate.
Device, stanza, effect (irony): in stanza 4 the consul treats living people as non-existent; the gap between ruling and fact exposes how a bureaucracy can value paper above people.
Device, stanza, effect (symbolism): in stanza 9 the harbour and the fish stand for escape and freedom of movement; the nearness of the water makes the refugees' exclusion feel cruelly close.
Device, stanza, effect (metaphor): in stanza 7 Hitler's voice is thunder; the metaphor makes his power seem like a force of nature and moves the poem from indifference to open threat.
Three lines to a stanza, two that rhyme, one long line that says it twice with a pause; irony shows the gap, symbols stand for more, and plain words let the horror roar.
Imagine a street musician with a battered guitar. He sings a line, pauses to speak to the person beside him, and sings the line again. The tune is gentle and the words are terrible, and the crowd walks past. That is the form of the poem: a gentle song that nobody stops to hear.
Tercets Always Carry Irony, Symbols, Metaphors, Numbers, Understatement - Tercet and AAB, Address, Caesura, Irony, Symbols, Metaphor, Numbers, Understatement.
S.I.M.P.L.E. - Symbol, Irony, Metaphor, Plain diction, Last-line refrain pattern, Exaggeration.
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How are the stanzas rhymed?
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What is the effect of the closing line of each stanza?
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What is a caesura?
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Name three examples of irony in the poem.
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What do the fish and the birds symbolise?
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What is the effect of the poem's plain diction?
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A line or phrase that returns in a poem or song; here the pattern of the closing line, rather than its exact words, acts as the refrain.
A pause within a line of verse, here created in the closing line by the word of address.
A gap between what is said or expected and what is meant or actually happens.
Placing two contrasting things side by side so that the difference stands out.
The use of an object or image to stand for a larger idea.
Deliberate exaggeration used to express strong feeling or to stress a point.
Presenting something serious in restrained language, so that its seriousness is felt more strongly.
Language that appeals to the senses, such as sight, sound or touch.
This lesson identifies the main literary devices in 'Refugee Blues': the tercet and blues-like form, the self-echoing closing line, direct address, irony, contrast, symbolism, metaphor, exaggeration, understatement, imagery and plain diction. It shows how each device produces the poem's effect so that you can name, locate and explain it in an examination.
Auden's devices are simple in appearance and powerful in effect. Twelve three-line stanzas, each ending in a longer line that repeats itself around a word of tender address, give the poem the weary beat of a blues song. Irony and contrast set officials and animals against refugees; symbols such as the passport, the harbour, the building and the snowy plain turn objects into ideas; a metaphor makes Hitler's voice into thunder; large numbers magnify the couple's smallness; and plain, conversational language keeps the tone quiet so that the horror speaks for itself.
The poem is made of twelve tercets, three-line stanzas, thirty-six lines in all. In every stanza the first two lines rhyme as a pair and the third does not rhyme with them, so the pattern is AAB. The third line is the longest in every stanza. The rhymes are simple and strongly marked, and most lines are complete in sense with a pause at the end, which gives the poem a steady, song-like beat. Auden used this blues and ballad manner on purpose. The blues is a song form of sorrow and repeated lines, and the ballad tells the story of ordinary people in plain words. The chime of the rhymes sits against the grim subject, and that contrast is one of the poem's main effects.
In every stanza the final line is built in the same way. A short statement is made, the speaker turns to his companion with a word of tender address, and then the statement is repeated. The pause in the middle of the line, created by the address, is a caesura. The effect is double. It echoes the repetition of the blues, where a line is sung and then sung again, and it shows a speaker who says something terrible and then says it again, as if to convince himself that it is true. The address to a loved one is also direct address, which makes the poem intimate: we overhear a private conversation. Because the wording changes from stanza to stanza while the pattern stays the same, the pattern, and not an identical line, acts as the refrain.
Many stanzas from the fifth onward open with the speaker's own action or perception, such as going, coming, seeing, walking, dreaming or standing, so the poem reads like a diary of a search. Stanzas 8 to 10 repeat the same design: the speaker sees a creature, and the stanza turns on something it enjoys that the refugees lack. This planned repetition builds an argument. The poem also moves from realistic scenes (a consul, a committee, a rally) to an imagined dream (stanza 11) and a closing vision of pursuit (stanza 12), and it ends without resolution, which is an open ending.
Irony is the poem's main weapon. In stanza 4 the consul treats living people as if they had ceased to exist, and the gap between the official ruling and the plain fact is verbal and situational irony. In stanza 5 a committee is polite and useless, so courtesy becomes a form of refusal. In stanza 8 a pampered pet and a cat are welcomed where refugees are not, and in stanza 10 birds are free of the politics that torments people because they are not human. In stanza 6 the couple suddenly realise that the speaker at the rally is talking about them, a moment of dramatic recognition.
The poem places opposites side by side. Stanza 1 sets the many kinds of home in the city against the couple's lack of any. Stanza 3 sets a tree that renews itself each spring against passports that cannot. Stanzas 8 to 10 set the welcome and freedom of creatures against the exclusion of people. Stanza 12 sets a vast army against two unarmed people. Contrast sharpens the injustice because the reader can see both sides at once.
Objects in the poem stand for larger ideas. The passport stands for legal identity and the right to exist in the eyes of the state. The yew tree stands for rootedness and natural renewal. The thunder stands for the approaching violence of war. The harbour stands for escape and the fish for freedom of movement. The birds stand for carefree freedom. The immense building with endless doors stands for a world of institutions with no entrance for the refugees. The plain and the snow stand for exposure, cold and the indifference of the continent, and the soldiers stand for organised state violence.
In stanza 7 the voice of Hitler is identified with thunder, which is a metaphor that makes his power seem like a force of nature. In stanza 6 the word bread is used for the whole means of living, which is metonymy. The poem also alludes to a real historical figure, Hitler, and to real institutions, the consul and the committee, so that the personal story is anchored in public events.
Large numbers appear in the opening stanza, in the dream of the building and in the closing picture of the soldiers. The city's population, the endless levels and openings of the dream-building, and the great number of soldiers magnify the contrast between the world's size and power and the smallness of two people. In stanzas 11 and 12 the numbers are also hyperbole, exaggeration used to express fear and the feeling of being overwhelmed.
The imagery is mostly visual: a vast city, a tree in spring, a harbour, a wood, a building, a snowy plain. There is also sound imagery, the rumble of thunder and the song of birds, and the snow adds a sense of cold. The diction is plain, conversational and mostly made of short everyday words, which gives the poem a quiet, matter-of-fact tone. This is understatement: the speaker reports terrible things without exclamation, so the reader supplies the horror. The tone moves between weary, ironic, tender and bitter, and the mood grows steadily darker, ending in fear.
Name the device, point to the stanza by number, describe the image in your own words, and explain the effect. For example: the closing line of each stanza repeats itself around an address to the companion, which echoes the blues and shows the speaker's weariness. Avoid listing devices without explaining what each one does.