Analyzing watts h auden s poem the unknown citizen

The Unknown Citizen

“The Unidentified Citizen”

The title with this poem, “The Unknown Citizen”, is the just time this phrase is usually mentioned and it is basically the crucial that the target audience will not know the dimensions of the identity from the man. The speaker appears as if she has reading off a keen that brings about an ironic contrast with this poor mans life. Even though the speaker commends the citizen, his expression choices expose a making use of tone. He talks about the citizen like he was a good little boy plus the speaker was the teacher. The reader is given many information about the person, yet non-e of it is definitely personal. The rhyme scheme in this composition makes the strengthen sound a bit humorous however for the most portion it’s satrical and sarcastic. At the end, the speaker claims that had anything been wrong with man, they might have certainly have heard. Nevertheless asked if the man was happy or free, the speaker promises the question is ludicrous.

The diction in this poem can be considered intricate. The reader can analyze this kind of poem repeatedly, and would probably have another type of opinion about the poem. It’s as is Auden wanted someone to want to know more to be able to inform you on these topics. The format in this poem is strange, in line 5-6 it says, “For in everything he did this individual served the Greater Community. Except for the Warfare till the morning he retired” stating which the man was obviously a saint all throughout his life aside from when he was called apart to conflict. The language in this poem is also old-timey, for example the guy was said to have “Everything necessary to a Modern Man, A phonograph, a radio, a vehicle, and a Frigidaire”. This provides the readers the sense that Auden probably wrote this kind of poem during World War II.

This kind of poem does not use a wide range of similes and metaphors. In fact , at times it seems deliberately un-poetic. The only metaphor found was your comparison between Unknown Resident and a saint. The word saint is known as a religious term, so the Not known Citizen won’t be able to actually be a single, except in the present00 sense. Equal 20, it is known that the person had anything necessary although mentions absolutely nothing about the standard necessities necessary to survive like food, normal water, etc ., creating this a hyperbole.

Auden would not use extremely little sound equipment in this composition, well by least only a few that one could pick out. Which is a small odd considering the fact that most poets use this for their advantage to create a greater psychological response from your reader. He certainly acquired many for you to and may have made the composition a little more interesting had he done so. The single thing I was able to pick up on was your use of unnecessary repetition here and there. For example , in line twenty one it says, “A phonograph, a radio, a car and a Frigidaire” where the consonant being repeated would be the vowel A.

Once read aloud, I was able to see that this kind of poem would not follow a common rhyme plan. It alternates between a couple of different, basic rhyme schemes. The composition begins with an ABAB pattern, but switches into a rhyming couple but from then on he starts off hopping around after a little bit. Line 8-13 follow the design ABBCCA, the rhyme structure beginning with the phrase “Inc. “. I had not been sure Auden was going to manage to create a rhyme but affirmed in line 13 he uses “drink”. The two words are so far away which i didn’t even know they will rhymed right up until I read the poem aloud a few times. Finally, the tempo of the poem roughly centers on the anapest, a metrical foot which has two unstressed beats accompanied by a burdened beat. By way of example in the beginning, He was FOUND by BUReau of STATistics…

One particular major theme of this poem would be the pressing concept that we how to start the identification of this guy. The readers aren’t given reasons as to why the citizen is unknown yet left to create a reason independently. This composition follows the concept the man followed the rules and lived his life how our parents inform all of us to. The “right” approach to live is to discover job, get married, and have a family group, which is what everyone feels to be happiness. The man by no means distinguished in any way from his fellow citizens. Instead he was just like everybody else, doing the same routine everyday, and buying the same things necessary for a “Modern Man”. The speaker also goes as far as stating in lines 23-24 “That he organised the proper viewpoints for the time of the season, When there is peace, he was for peace: when there were war, this individual went. inch Giving the readers the sense that the man was like a drone, and living life on auto-pilot.