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A. Answer in A Sentence or Two:: Say This City Has Ten Million Souls W H Auden
A. Answer in A Sentence or Two:: Say This City Has Ten Million Souls W H Auden
W H Auden
A. Answer in a sentence or two:
1. Who is the speaker in the poem?
A Jewish refugee from Germany.
2. What is his nationality?
He is a German.
3. What has happened to his passport?
His passport has expired.
4. What is the dream the speaker had?
In one dream he saw a building with a thousand floors, a thousand doors and
windows. In another he was standing on a plain where ten thousand soldiers marched
to and fro, looking for him and his wife.
B. Answer in a short paragraph of about fifty words:
1. “If we let them in, they will steal our daily bread.” Explain.
A speaker at a public meeting expresses the natives’ suspicion of the refugees through
this sentence. The natives hate the refugees because they fear the refugees will take
away the opportunities and resources that belong to them. The phrase “daily bread” is
a satirical comment on the attitude of the Christians.
2. Which lines suggest the endurance of the people?
The refugees had to flee from their native country. They no longer belong there and
their passports have expired. They are considered officially dead by the consul. But
the speaker says in spite of all the suffering, “but we are still alive, my dear, we are
still alive.” The dream of standing alone on the plain in the falling snow also points to
the endurance and survival of the Jewish refugees.
C. Answer in about hundred words:
1. How are the refugees treated in the city?
The speaker in Auden’s poem is a German Jew who had to flee with his wife
from his native country. They have no place to live in the new city. They
cannot make a new start because their expired passports will not be renewed.
The consul bangs the table angrily and tells them that they are officially dead.
A committee in charge of refugee affairs asks the desperate Jew to return the
following year. The people complain about the refugees who will steal their
livelihood. Animals are treated with much more love and respect.
2. Comment on the tone of despair in the poem.
The speaker in Auden’s poem is a German Jew who had to flee with his wife
from their native country. They have not even the smallest place to live in the
new city. The newly blossoming yew tree reminds him that their expired
passports will not renew on their own. They have no place to go to and no hope
for the future. He watches sadly as the native citizens treat their pet animals
with much more love and respect. The speaker contrasts his situation with that
of the fish that swim freely and the birds that sing at their ease. The third line of
every stanza conveys the desperate situation.The speaker’s despair is conveyed
through the slow sad rhythm that reminds one of African Blues music.