Week Four

This week we read some great poems by W. H. Auden and Stevie Smith. "Refugee Blues" is my favorite because it is written about the Jews who were exiled in 1939. Written in the form of a blues song, the tone and rhythm reflect the Jews' anxiety and fear. The refugee speaks to his wife as they try to find their place on foreign soil that is in a huge city among strangers. I cannot imagine how terrifying that would be. But they are the lucky ones. The speaker relates his anger about the horrific conditions and alienation that the Jews experience. Auden lived in New York City beside thousands of refugees. That alone would be scary! Auden's "Refugee Blues" is a poem that reveals the Jew's experiences as they fled Germany and the Nazis just before World War II. This poem helps me to have a better understanding about how the Jewish refugees felt as they were persecuted and displaced.

Stevie Smith's "Not Waving But Drowning" is a short ambigous poem but has rich meanings. Although the man in the water appears to be waving, he is really drowning. I think this poem can have many interpretations. First of all, it can have a literal meaning that involves swimming out too far into deep waters. But it can also mean that the man is drowning with responsibilities or too much work. As a student, I can certainly understand this. Deadlines and projects seem to occur all at the same time.

The next thing that I noticed was that no one seems to hear the drowning man or pay any attention to him. He has no voice but drowns alone even though there are many people around when they pull his dead body to shore. What a tragedy! But life is often like that. We become so consumed with our own busy lives that we forget to keep an ear out for those in trouble or less fortunate. We then give excuses to ease our guilt, similar to the speaker in this poem.

Finally, I noticed the word "cold" is mentioned twice. Not only is the water too cold for the drowning man, but his life seems to be cold as well. The man cannot win. He lived a cold, loveless life and then dies, alone in the freezing water. Stevie Smith is refreshing to read after T. S. Eliot's long symbolic poems.

Stevie Smith also wrote "Pretty." This poem seems to be ironic because she uses the word 'pretty" over and over. Her comparisons help me to realize how often I use the word, too. I enjoy reading Smith's poetry because her sarcasm is funny. I cannot imagine a "water rat" being pretty.

Poets often see the world through a slanted lens such as Emily Dickinson. She certainly saw the world in a unique but different way. Dickinson read Webster's Dictionary to savor words and their definitions to write her lyric poetry. Like Dickinson, Smith rejected religion and lived in the same house most of her life.

I am grateful that Smith does not use the compressed language that Dickinson did. Yet, both Smith and Dickinson deal with life, death, and immortality in their poetry as seen through nature and elements of everday life. I enjoyed our readings this week.