Comparing the two poems Refugee Blues by W H Auden and Disabled by Wilfred Owen

by phoebeee1997 (student)

Phoebe RowanL5AXCEnglish

Comparing the two poems ‘Refugee Blues’ by W H Auden and ‘Disabled’ by Wilfred Owen

Wilfred Owen and W H Auden are both war poets, each experiencing a different war but both expressing the same feeling-loss. The two poems ‘Disabled; by Wilfred Owen’ and ‘Refugee Blues by W H Auden’ were both a passionate response to the horrors of war. ‘Disabled’ talks about a warrior, in third narrative perspective, during World War 1, who has lost his youth as he believed that this will make his country, friends, family and lover proud. Whereas ‘Refugee Blues’ is written in first person who conveys the plight of the German Jews during the time of World War 2. Although both of these poems refer to the same theme, a loss of human dignity, both physically and emotionally there are a numerous amount of contrasts throughout both texts. Each poet uses different techniques and styles to expose the theme of their poem.

Refugee Blues written in 1939 is written as a blue, a sad song which strongly shows the melancholy feeling. We can see obviously as a refugee the couple has lost their home, their country and their identity. The poem starts with a narrator who is later revealed to be a German Jew describing a large city which is home to ten million people some of which are well off and live in luxurious large houses while others make do in slums. The narrator tells the person with him presumably a woman, that there is no place for them there. He remembers that they once had a country long ago but now there own country Is so distant to them that to see it they have to browse through an atlas and he knows they can’t go there either. He mourns to his companion that old passports can’t renew themselves, remembering how the country where they wanted to go had rejected them saying that they were as good as dead if they didn’t updated passports. He remembers how when he had gone to the people who had been made responsible for providing the war refugees homes, they had been polite to him, yet hadn’t been able to help him, having their hands tied because of the politics and had told him to return next year. Recalling a public meeting he had attended, he remembers that a person had accused them of trying to steal away the livelihood of the occupants of the city by barging in and informs his companion that that man had been talking of them.

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He thinks that he heard the rumbling of an imminent storm, but it turned out to be Hitler sentencing them all to death. He sees a dog securely wrapped in a warm jacket, and a cat get inside a car, the door of which had been held open for it and thinks that they are lucky that they aren’t German Jews. He notices the fish swimming freely in the water at the harbour and the birds flying wherever they want in the skies when he goes to the woods and marvels at them not having any politicians and wars as they were not human beings. He then tells his companion that he had a dream in which he saw a magnificent building which could accommodate a thousand people yet there was no place for them in it anywhere. He remembers how when he stood on the plains and looked through the falling snow he could see a thousand soldiers marching towards them, looking for them to put them away, to kill them.

The Blue has a rigid pattern concerning the use of repetitions and a simple rhyme scheme. The poem is divided into twelve stanzas which first two lines rhyme while the third present a repetition. The whole song there is a refrain as the author always repeat the words ‘My dear’. The structure of the text is carried on through the use of contrasting pictures, the mansion of the holes, expressing the gap between normal people rich people and Jews. The language which is being used is informal while the tone is sad and melancholic.

Disabled written by Wilfred Owen explores the effects of war on those who live through it by comparing the present life of an injured soldier to his past hopes and accomplishes. The first stanza starts with the depressing description of a lone man sitting in a wheelchair in a park, being unable to walk or participate in any of the activities involving exercise going on around him. He is dressed formally, but his suit is cut at the waist helplessly listening to the voices of young children which saddens him as they remind him of something he can’t ever have again. He then remembers what his life had been like before his injury: at this time of night, after the work had been done for the day, the town had come to life at night. He remembers how the streets used to light up and how the girls would become more inviting and alluring. He regrets losing his legs, for he knows that he will never again dance holding a woman or feel her soft touches as they now touch him out of pity, like as if he is strange abnormality in their normal life. He remembers once there was such validity, such life in him that an artist had been insistent on drawing his face, for just a year ago, it spoke of innocence and clarity of heart. But now his face has become withered with experience and sorrow and he can’t even support himself, both literally and figuratively. He has become pale as if all his life had been leached out of him through the wound of his thighs, and he feels like half of his life is already over.

He remembers how before he had become disabled, he had been a renowned football player, and was proud of the blood cut on his leg which had resulted from a match., and how the crowd had carried him on their shoulders celebrating how excellent he was. It was after this match when he was drunk that he asked to join the army just to appear manly to the ladies as someone suggested he would look dashing in a uniform. He went as far as lying about his age and as a result he had joined the war. He had thought only of the distant lands he would travel to. The soldier is now bought back to reality as he remembers how compared to the amount of people that waved him goodbye to the amount that applauded him home was heartbreaking. Only a sole aged man visits him and inquires about his life and health. It is now that sitting alone in the park, noticing how women’s eyes pass over him after glancing at him piteously he knows that he will live in an institute were they will be people to take care of him and he will do as they say following their rules to live the rest of his life. He just hopes and prays that someone will remember him and come and take care of him.

Owen applies harsh words to emphasise what he is wearing, ‘Ghastly suit of grey’, this to me is showing his depressing state of mind. The words in which are used to convey the poem are very powerful and bold with a meaning that is strong and undeniable. As the poem continues he goes on to tell us how he regrets ‘throwing’ away his knees, suggesting that the ideas and inspirations behind joining the war were not as devoted and loyal as they should have been, and his pride only has now left him cripple. The imagery of his life bleeding out of him through the wound on his thigh, and the use of the word ‘purple’ , a colour denoting life and vitality shows that the ordeal the soldier had gone through when he had been injured had a deep impact on him as he no longer feels alive or has any desire to live. The analogy drawn between playing sports and being a soldier in the war is very effective. It is also a reminder to him that his pride had caused him the exact thing he had been proud of. He would never again run in a field or score a winning goal, he would never again be praised for being a hero only pitied endlessly about being cripple. The things that he used to boast about the wounds received in a match and being carried on the shoulders of his team mates is so much different from no longer having his legs. The contrast is frightening and clever. The structure of the poem when he switches between past and present and the remembrance and realization of what the soldier has lost is important and a good technique that Wilfred Owen uses. Each Stanza starts with describing the soldier’s present conditions and then compares it to his past life or vice versa. Nevertheless the last stanza depicts what he thinks his future holds for him which is a life of dependency and helplessness.

The differences between both of these poems are the way in which the poet presents them towards the audience. Although a lot of the poetic devices are being used such as the rhyming, alliteration and rhetorical questions are included they are two completely different poems portraying a different matter/story. The mood and tone being conveyed to the audience in each one gives you a real sense of sympathy for the narrator telling the story.

HELP i need to say more about why they are similar/ different