Refugee Blues Refugee Blues "Refugee Blues" is a poem by W. H. Auden, written in 1939, one of a number of poems Auden wrote in the mid- to late-1930s in blues and other popular metres, for example the meter he used in his love poem "Calypso", written around the same time. The poem dramatizes the condition of Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany in the years before World War II, especially the indifference and antagonism they faced when seeking asylum in the democracies of the period. In some later editions of Auden's poetry, the poem is not identified by name but is the
The Twelve (poem) half-tone lower, stop telling lies". Such a "criminal" atmosphere pervades the Petrograd of "The Twelve", a frightening city in the snowy winter of 1918. Aleksandr Blok considered this poem to be his best work. During the war, Savoyarov met Aleksandr Blok who attended his concerts in cinemas and café chantant a dozen times in 1914-1918. Sometimes Blok brought actors who recited his poems and plays onstage. Thus in 1918 he persistently showed Savoyarov’s performances to his wife Liubov Mendeleyeva-Blok so that she could "adopt" his eccentric manner (for reading "The Twelve" poem). He wrote in his journals: "Liuba finally saw