Words & Images

Yet theres no place for us, my dear

WH Auden does what a blues writer would do; takes a single main theme and makes variations on it, leading to a particularly powerful finale. The theme of this song is the abuse of human rights experienced not only by German Jews but by other Jews and by refugees anywhere.

But where shall we go today, my dear?

Some

in mansions, some in holes but no home at all for the refugee.

Once we had a country and we thought it fair

Came to a public meeting

Dreamed I saw a building with a thousand floors

Ten thousand soldiers marched to and fro

Yet theres no place for us, my dear