W.H. Auden's The Unknown Citizen

In a tribute to the "Unknown Citizen", Auden composes a poetic obituary in which he recounts the perfectly conventional life of the fictional deceased man through a subtly satirical and matter of fact tone. As Auden delves pass superficial records of the man's official life and raises the question of his intrapersonal life, he aims to stir discussion on the subject of blind conformity and subsequent annihilation of individuality.

At first reading, the main title the the subtitle of the poem suggest potential allusion to the various monuments to the unidentified soldiers who died fighting for their countries. However, the irony immediately surfaces in that the unidentified man does not unwillingly give up his identity like the mentioned soldiers. Rather he seemingly chooses to lose his identity through his complying behavior to the laws and social norms, as illustrated in the following lines, "When there was peace, he was for peace; when there was war, he went/...added five children to the population/Which our Eugenist says was the right number for his generation" (24-27). Here the word 'Eugenist' is worth considering beyond its regular denotation-meaning someone who believes in perfecting the human race through parenthood regulation and genetic engineering. With the notion of genetic conditioning in mind, it becomes ambiguous whether the man truly has any free will to begin with. Though he appears to have given up his identity through deliberate actions, he may well have done so solely because society has conditioned him into abiding conventions even before his free will could develop. The idea of the unthinking automaton is further supported by the predictable end rhyme pattern and the laundry-listing structure of the poem. By utilizing these poetic devices, Auden effectively creates a pervading sense of monotony (especially when the poem is read aloud as an actual obituary) that characterizes the man's life. Auden maintains a consistently detached, impersonal tone as he sifts through the official records of the man. Only until near the end does an abrupt shift occur: "Was he free? Was he happy?" (29), representing a fleeting attempt to delve beneath the surface, to understand the man more personally. However, Auden goes no further than that and immediately ends on a dismissive, satirical note: "The question is absurd/...anything wrong, we should have heard" (29-30), suggesting that the identity of the unknown man is forever lost to the dust. Hence the ultimate irony of the anonymous man, whose life's records are as accessible as an open book, yet fail to reveal anything substantial or personal about him.

With clever execution in tone, form, and structure, "The unknown Citizen" functions as a fleeting snapshot of an automaton's drab existence and as a reminder of the irretrievably of freedom once it is lost.

Work cited

Auden, W.H. "The Unknown Citizen". Another Time. Comp. W. H. Auden. Random House, 1940