Question

How does the poet juxtapose the human condition with the behaviour of the political class?

Answer 1

The poem is crafted in the environment when the whole of Germany rose to the ideology of Nazism and the political thinkers were determined to terminate the whole of the Jew community.

The thunderous rumbling of Adolf Hitler that “they must die” shook waves of terror across Europe paralysing Jews to utmost horror. The narrator exclaims at this that they are in his mind! In a public meeting in the USA, where they took refuge, the speaker spoke anti-Jews as well. He possibly meant that if Jews were allowed to settle in they would steal their jobs and food. Jews across America and Europe were looked at with bitter hatred. Everyone wanted them dead. At this time the couple is left destitute at the hands of fate. They are scared and bewildered. They have nothing to go back to the nation that was once there. They suffer the loss of identity and are threatened with death constantly. A striking contrast is drawn between the two sects that the world around them is divided into. One is comprising of people like them, the Jews and the other is the one hunting for them, wanting to kill them. One is the sufferer and the other is the one inflicting pain on the first one.