How to teach W.H. Auden’s poem?
Say this city has ten million souls,
Some are living in mansions, some are living in holes:
Yet there's no place for us, my dear, yet there's no place for us.
Once we had a country and we thought it fair,
Look in the atlas and you'll find it there:
We cannot go there now, my dear, we cannot go there now.
In the village churchyard there grows an old yew,
Every spring it blossoms anew:
Old passports can't do that, my dear, old passports can't do that.
The consul banged the table and said,
"If you've got no passport you're officially dead":
But we are still alive, my dear, but we are still alive.
Went to a committee; they offered me a chair;
Asked me politely to return next year:
But where shall we go today, my dear, but where shall we go today?
Came to a public meeting; the speaker got up and said;
"If we let them in, they will steal our daily bread":
He was talking of you and me, my dear, he was talking of you and me.
Thought I heard the thunder rumbling in the sky;
It was Hitler over Europe, saying, "They must die":
O we were in his mind, my dear, O we were in his mind.
Saw a poodle in a jacket fastened with a pin,
Saw a door opened and a cat let in:
But they weren't German Jews, my dear, but they weren't German Jews.
Went down the harbour and stood upon the quay,
Saw the fish swimming as if they were free:
Only ten feet away, my dear, only ten feet away.
Walked through a wood, saw the birds in the trees;
They had no politicians and sang at their ease:
They weren't the human race, my dear, they weren't the human race.
Dreamed I saw a building with a thousand floors,
A thousand windows and a thousand doors:
Not one of them was ours, my dear, not one of them was ours.
Stood on a great plain in the falling snow;
Ten thousand soldiers marched to and fro:
Looking for you and me, my dear, looking for you and me.
Some are living in mansions, some are living in holes:
Yet there's no place for us, my dear, yet there's no place for us.
Once we had a country and we thought it fair,
Look in the atlas and you'll find it there:
We cannot go there now, my dear, we cannot go there now.
In the village churchyard there grows an old yew,
Every spring it blossoms anew:
Old passports can't do that, my dear, old passports can't do that.
The consul banged the table and said,
"If you've got no passport you're officially dead":
But we are still alive, my dear, but we are still alive.
Went to a committee; they offered me a chair;
Asked me politely to return next year:
But where shall we go today, my dear, but where shall we go today?
Came to a public meeting; the speaker got up and said;
"If we let them in, they will steal our daily bread":
He was talking of you and me, my dear, he was talking of you and me.
Thought I heard the thunder rumbling in the sky;
It was Hitler over Europe, saying, "They must die":
O we were in his mind, my dear, O we were in his mind.
Saw a poodle in a jacket fastened with a pin,
Saw a door opened and a cat let in:
But they weren't German Jews, my dear, but they weren't German Jews.
Went down the harbour and stood upon the quay,
Saw the fish swimming as if they were free:
Only ten feet away, my dear, only ten feet away.
Walked through a wood, saw the birds in the trees;
They had no politicians and sang at their ease:
They weren't the human race, my dear, they weren't the human race.
Dreamed I saw a building with a thousand floors,
A thousand windows and a thousand doors:
Not one of them was ours, my dear, not one of them was ours.
Stood on a great plain in the falling snow;
Ten thousand soldiers marched to and fro:
Looking for you and me, my dear, looking for you and me.
--- WH Auden
(Credited to) https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/refugee-blues/
Here is the answer to the above question of ‘how to teach?’
This is a plan to teach the poem within four hours in four different days in a week.
The level expected is the first year undergraduate class.
1. Objectives of teaching the lesson
a) Students look into the recent refugee problems from different parts of the world.
b) They make an attempt to describe the pains of the refugees as their own pains.
c) They collect information about the ethnic issue against which WH Auden wrote the poem in 1939, on the verge of WWII.
d) They appreciate the present poem from the aspects of; theme, rhyme and rhythm, imagery, metaphor.
2. Materials required
Images of refugees, computer, LCD Projector, screen
Images of refugees, computer, LCD Projector, screen
Day 1 (one hour)
You have heard of certain recent events of refugees crossing the river or sea to reach a safer place, haven’t you?
Look, this is the picture of Aylin Kurdie, who died while crossing the sea.
Image credit to
https://www.google.co.in/search?q=aylan+kurdi+image&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=h39BOHTaWzvopM%253A%252CTbrYnU2ARy6eiM%252C_&usg=__4FgtsKCt5t8unIoCfI0TiV2TfZg%3D&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjQwoHjgNXYAhUMQo8KHe7zDIYQ9QEIKjAA#imgrc=h39BOHTaWzvopM:
He was a refugee escaping from Syria to Europe in a boat with his parents.
The boat wrecked in the middle of the sea and the child was drowned with many other.
The dead body was washed on the shore, and his father took the dead body.
Look, another picture of the Rohingyas, refugees escaping from Myanmar to Bangladesh and India.
image credit to
https://www.google.co.in/search?q=rohingyas+image&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=ku8hp7ueABYJwM%253A%252Cs_3eAd6OFw2lfM%252C_&usg=__Lh3xUTeWlS4bfYenRGTsvtbps9k%3D&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiFyOSDgNXYAhUgSY8KHcC1A6cQ9QEIMjAE#imgrc=FpdMmdLwUoLbfM:
https://www.google.co.in/search?q=rohingyas+image&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=ku8hp7ueABYJwM%253A%252Cs_3eAd6OFw2lfM%252C_&usg=__Lh3xUTeWlS4bfYenRGTsvtbps9k%3D&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiFyOSDgNXYAhUgSY8KHcC1A6cQ9QEIMjAE#imgrc=FpdMmdLwUoLbfM:
Think of their lives in refugee camps.
Their anxiety, worry, concern and above all their insecurity are high.
Where shall they move?
Where will they live?
Who will host them?
How will they live in the refugee camps?
This time you are creating any story related to the life in refugee camps.
Imagine two or more characters in the refugee camp.
Then imagine the environment there.
Think of some events.
Now take your pen and write the story which is in your mind.
They make an attempt to write the story.
After writing the story they share the stories in small groups.
Let them select the better ones in the groups.
The best is presented in the whole class.
(Showing the poem on the screen) Here is a poem with the same theme.
That is, the insecurity of the refugees in another country.
Read the poem of WH Auden as a homework.
They read the poem as a homework.
Day 2 (one hour)
Open your textbook, turn to the poem, Refugee Blues.
See, the poem has 12 stanzas.
Each stanza has three lines.
Read once again.
If there are any barriers to new words, mark them.
You make a list of new words, which require meaning from your friends in the class.
They write the list of new words.
Let them ask others in the class to get the meaning of words they want.
If the friends couldn’t help them. Let them use the glossary in the textbook or any standard dictionary (print or online).
Teacher gives any additional points if required.
(Following can be a list of new words in classes where English is the second language)
hole
quay
poodle
Consul
yew
rumbling
After clearing the barriers of the new words they read the poem again.
(This time they understand the poem well)
You completed the reading of the poem, didn’t you?
Now close your textbooks.
Close your eyes too.
What are your quick reactions to the poem?
Open your pen, take your notebook.
Write your first-hand reactions.
They make an attempt to write the first-hand reactions to the poem.
Two or three students present their reactions.
In the poem, there are usages ‘we’ and ‘us’,
Which means that there is somebody with the speaker.
They are in exile, the writer feels utter insecurity, and also he is disappointed.
He speaks his dissatisfaction to someone.
Who is that?
Take your time to reach a conclusion.
Who is that?
The teacher invites maximum responses.
I was also asking the same question to myself.
Is it the writer and his son/daughter?
Is it the writer and his neighbour?
Is it the writer and his friend?
Is it the writer and his love?
Is it the writer and his wife?
Teacher provokes the students for a debate.
What is your evidence to believe that it is writer’s wife/lover/companion?
(Don’t sensitise them that is a debate, let them come up with new arguments)
Have you thought of the summary of the poem?
Write the stanza wise summary of the poem as a home task.
Day 3 (one hour)
You have written the summary of the poem, haven’t you?
Two or three students present the summary, others listen.
You all have the summary of the poem, can you summarise the poem into a paragraph with eight sentences.
When they summarise into 8 lines, teacher asks them;
Can you summarise it into four sentences?
They summarise it into four sentences.
When they summarise into four sentences, teacher asks;
Can you summarise into two sentences with its all essence?
They make an attempt to summarise into two sentences.
When they summarise into two sentences, teacher asks;
Now, compress into one sentence.
When they summarise into one sentence, teacher challenges;
Can you squeeze it into one word with all the essence of the poem?
They exchange books to share their summaries with others in the class.
Two or three explain the meaning of final summary of the single word.
They also explain the reason for summarising the entire meaning into a single word.
Examine the poem once again, there are certain rhyming words.
Examine the end words of the first sentence
What is the last word?
Yes, souls.
What is the end word?
Yes, holes.
What is the end sound of these words?
Yes, s.
Now examine the last sounds of the first and second lines of the second stanza.
What is the common sound at the end?
Yes, r.
Likewise, you examine the next set of lines.
What is that end word?
What is the end sound of the end words?
What is the end sound of the end word of the third sentence of each stanza?
Can you find any pattern in the rhyme?
Yes, it is AAB.
It increases the beauty of reciting the poem.
The rhyme scheme is AAB. The last words of the first two lines of each stanza rhyme with each other.
Day 4 (one hour)
The poem is with certain ironies.
Irony means the witty language used to convey insults or scorn, especially one thing but implying the opposite.
For example, look at the fourth stanza of the poem;
Teacher shows the stanza on the screen
The consul banged the table and said,
"If you've got no passport you're officially dead": But we are still alive, my dear, but we are still alive. |
Likewise, there are other ironies.
They identify other ironies in the poem.
Those who identify the ironies present them in the whole class.
Accordingly, the class agrees or disagrees with the presentation.
What is the historical background depicted in the poem?
Find out the lines referring the history of Europe just before World War II.
The students make an attempt to find out the lines that have historical reference.
Hitler’s persecution is implied in stanza two.
Jews were the people in exile, they were chased out from Germany.
The politician Joseph Goebbels, a close associate of Hitler has been implied on the tenth stanza.
It is he who proved the sense of the sating ‘tell a lie one hundred times becomes a truth’
Ok, these are all the explicit things in the poem.
Do you find anything implicit in the poem?
Implicit means, something hidden between lines or above the lines or above the lines?
WH Auden, the poet has his own religious outlook expressed through his poems.
Auden had his Anglican catholic attachment in his childhood.
What I ask you is that, do you associate any religious theme?
If they feel any provocation on the above question, let them make an attempt.
I have heard a religious saying “on this earth, thou live like an exile’
Thou, means you, you live like an exile.
You yourself can find out the meaning of the saying.
If they fail to interpret the meaning, teacher interpret as follows;
A refugee is a wanderer too.
He has no much belongings or property with him.
If he has anything valuable, how long can he possess and enjoy?
Life on earth is not perennial, one day there must be an end to the journey of life.
Until then everybody is a refugee.
During the journey, it is not advisable to enjoy the wealth and pleasures of the world.
This is one inner meaning of the poem.
There can be other meanings also.
Teacher poses two more questions and closes the discussions.
a) The poem has refrains at the end of all stanzas. Means, there is a repetition of lines.
Is this purposeful? If so what is the purpose of the repetition?
b) Do you like the title of the poem? What can be meaning of ‘blues’ in the title?
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