Paragraph wise summary of the poem "Refugee blues"

Refugee: a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster.

Blues: How one  feels (sad, gloomy, dejected) 

The narrator in the poem seems to be a refugee, we see he is an elder person and is talking to someone who he holds dear to. The listener can be either his wife/sister/daughter/son/brother/grandkids.

The poem also deals with failed attempts to escape their country, Nazi Germany, but cannot, due to the fact that they do not own passports; leaving them homeless.

As a refugee, the speaker is contrasting his own situation of not having a place of his own to those people, the ten million souls who despite of the condition of their place have a place of their own.

We can she the narrator trying to contrast the idea of renewal. how a tree is able to renew itself while the passport  cannot do that on its own.T

Next paragraph talks about the misery of the refugees of how they are considered dead, if they fail to show a valid passport. But in reality they are still alive and people can see that they alive yet never treat them as alive. Looking at this we can see how much our verified paper works matter to prove whether one is alive or not.

The poem futher talks about how a person in power plays the role, as being sweet but having a disguised face. Here we see the narrator goes to seek help from the committee but ends up being called in another year while his problems that he/she is going through is overlooked. Politely he is made to feel irrelevant. For he needs a place to stay at the present but there is no solution for him.

Next paragraph, highlights about how the refugees are considered as the threat to the countries they go to. They become the threat to the people of that country by taking away the basic nessecities, the jobs, lands,house e.t.tc from the people who feel entitled to these because they were born in that country.

Number seven talks about how the cats and dogs also have a better life than they do, these animals have a home, good clothes and how doors open to let them in while these refugees are who are homeless, the doors shut on them rather than opening.

Paragraph eight talks about freedom by showing it through the symbol of fish, the refugees aren't free, they are held captive by situation, circumstances and destiny.

Paragraph 9 talks about how nature has no politicians who works only for his own betterment, the narrator says that is why the birds are singing in ease or else they too would fall victim to the politics of nature, if existed.

Paragraph 10: Even in their dreams these refugees see, the things they lack and that is a home, inspite of having thousands and thousands of houses, there was not even a single one for them.

Last Paragraph talks about the constant fear they live in, the fear of being caught and thrown out of the country and being separated from their beloved ones. They know that the are being looked out for and the moment they get caught the scene will not be worthy enough to see.


The whole poem talks about the trouble and the life of a refugee and it does justice to the topic as well.Tone of the poem


The tone of the poem is depressing . The pain felt by these refugees can actually be felt by the reader which makes them realise a lot of things based on today's context regarding the refugees.

Post a Comment

Spammers Keep Away !!

Previous Post Next Post