W.H. Auden's The Unknown Citizen

W. H. Auden's The Unknown Citizen provides a bureaucratic, i.e. statistical, account of an unknown male whose marble monument reads "JS/07 M 378." The main theme of the poem is that the deceased lived a life so "by the book" that he is virtually unknowable other than in a statistical or clinical manner. Through the use of diction, rhyme, connotation, and other poetic devices, Auden brings to light the fact that having lived such a routine life the man was "anonymous" while alive as much as he is as a corpse.

The speaker appears to be someone familiar with records of bureaucratic institutions. He describes the "unknown citizen" in a clinical manner. He tells us the Bureau of Statistics cites "no official complaint" against the man who "was a saint" (Auden 2; 4). Everything the man did he did in service to the "Greater Community" (Auden 5). He worked in a factory, never got fired, owned a car, did not make waves as a laborer, and was liked by his peers. His response to advertisements was "normal," he had "everything necessary" materially, he had the "right number" of children and he "never interfered" with his children's education (Auden 15; 20; 26; 27). Diction helps convey the irony of the deceased's life, one that appears as unremarkable as the inscription on his tomb. Auden uses the words "normal," "right," and "proper" to suggest that the deceased lived a routine life that never admitted anything outside of what was consid

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Category: Literature - W