• Literary Analysis: Dulce et Decorum est & The Unknown Citizen Verbal irony is something that can be used in our everyday life. In the poem “The Unknown Citizen”, Auden’s use of irony is easy to see. Often anthologized and read by students in high school and college, it is renowned for its wit and irony in complaining about the stultifying and anonymous qualities of bureaucratic, semi-socialist Western societies. The deliberate use of a passive voice in the above sentence further accentuates the passivity of this man that lacks any individuality: there is nothing particular about this nameless face in the crowd. from the rest. He talked about how he grew up reciting T. S. Eliot’s poems. Owen mocks war in his poem, “Dulce et Decorum Est” by showing how sweet and fitting it is to die for one’s country. 669 S Bernardo Ave.Sunnyvale CA 94087. The irony here is biting and harsh and unsettling and memorable—a reason why most people remember Auden by this brilliant yet sarcastic poem. This person has not done anything wrong, and describes him by saying, “and all the reports on his conduct agree, that, in the … Rather, it is now we, the human ants, who must serve these offices, instead. In this poem he is describing a citizen who is essentially unremarkable. It is about the unknown citizen who is hard to find in the society. Analyzing the Irony in “The Unknown Citizen” The United States of America is a minor power nation. I did not shake hands with Mr. Auden himself personally when I went to hear his lecture on Modern Poetry held at Seoul National University in South Korea. A Ph. Thank you for this hub. In this poem he is describing a citizen who is essentially unremarkable. identify himself with. Irony in the poem ‘The Unknown Citizen’. Maybe more than that I read his poetry every night and find inspiration from his daily. It was in the mid 70’s and I was a wet-behind-ears undergraduate English major, dreaming to become a writer, attending an unknown private college in Cheong Ju, South Korea, which now has become the University of Cheong Ju, two of the largest universities in Choong Buk Province, about two hours south from Seoul. "The Unknown Citizen" is a poem written by W. H. Auden in 1939, shortly after he moved from England to the United States. our Eugenist says [five children he added] was the right number for a parent of his generation,” and he never bothered his children’s education—“And our teachers report that he never interfered with their education.” The ironic tone here is condescending, if not disdainful: all his personal and private actions were “approved by the government or its public agencies.” The real meaning is, “What a moron this guy really was!” Think about for a minute: what kind of society are we living in if we must get approval from the government for every personal action we take? The Unknown Citizen. Even the correct capitalization in “Fudge Motors Inc.,” sounds, well, “fudge” ; for example, Oxford English Dictionary defines that the word “fudge” means “inarticulate expression of indignant disgust” first used by Oliver Goldsmith in 1766 (See Reference 1). Yoon Sik Kim (author) from Republic of Oklahoma on August 13, 2013: Thank you very much for your thoughtful comments. . It is a comparability between an everyday citizen who goes about his business day by day and leads a really fairly life. . Nowadays when I ask my students about the meaning of the term “irony,” smarty pants students quip me that the word “irony” is an adjectival form of the noun “iron!” Clever is the wit, of course; however, even in that joke, one can also see how “irony” could mean something “chewy” as it means a twisted double-meaning, ranging from a bitter sarcasm to a mild parody, all poking fun at the current status of things. Now then why or who would erect a marble monument for such nameless faces in the crowd? The real meaning is hidden in the irony. Completing the CAPTCHA proves you are a human and gives you temporary access to the web property. “The Unknown Citizen” (1940) is one of Auden’s most famous poems. Auden achieves his goal by conveying his message through irony. HOME. To intensify the irony, the speaker of the poem treads carefully in the portrayal of this unknown factory hand, just another nameless face in … But I did ask him a question so that my question, along with his response, would be recorded and kept in the archives of Seoul National University as I was then a butting [sic] poet, full of ambition. Another way to prevent getting this page in the future is to use Privacy Pass. that served the Greater Community.” Such archaic use of the word “saint” creates a distance from reality, suggesting that this guy belongs to the past. The unknown citizen has lived under a police state, watched by the Big Brother, deprived of individual freedom imprisoned as though in Huxlean Brave New World. The above statement is pure irony. Intro Author: W.H. If you are on a personal connection, like at home, you can run an anti-virus scan on your device to make sure it is not infected with malware. I too like Auden a lot. The Unknown Citizen is about the story of a dead man who does not even have a name to. MEMBERSHIP. The occasion is indicated in the lines contained in parenthesis that precede the body of the poem. Phone: 408-732-8597 NEWSLETTER; CONTACT US; FAQs; Menu It is the wish of the dictatorial government to have such a citizen. As these lines indicate, the poem is a written monument that functions as a cenotaph: it commemorates a fallen man whose identity is unknown. However, unlike the soldier who falls in a battle of war, the battle this individual appears to be unwittingly a part of is a social battle, since he is labelled … This brassy question visibly angered Mr. Auden and he responded how unfair, if not impudent, the question was, because the question, he explained, was analogous as to why do we eat? It took me nearly three hours—one way—to attend the lecture: a two-hour express bus ride through the new national highway and then another hour ride on the notoriously difficult to identify Seoul City bus with numbers for its myriad unfathomable destinations. That is to say, it is a poem written to mark a specific occasion or event. The Unknown Citizen: 1. . Auden’s “The Unknown Citizen” is a poem that turns an individual into just another statistic, and it can be said that the unknown citizen could be anyone at all. Your IP: 138.128.210.50 "The Unknown Citizen" was written by the British poet W.H. On the surface, the speaker of the poem appears to celebrate and memorialize the death of this automaton-like factory worker—with a good measure of sincerity. The speaker of the poem further robs any sense of individuality in the unknown citizen by carefully blurring any particularity in his description; in fact, he has never been allowed to speak anything for himself as all the depictions about him have been rendered by an observer, possibly a federal or state agent, looking at bureaucratic records or reports. Clever is the wit, of course; however, even in that joke, one can also see how “irony” could mean something “chewy” as it means a twisted double-meaning, ranging from a bitter sarcasm to a mild … © 2021 Maven Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. Jamie Lee Hamann from Reno NV on August 13, 2013: W.H. McGee of 303 and Learnstrong.net lectures on W.H. Cloudflare Ray ID: 63bd326dbe50366c The title is ironic because it's called The Unknown Citizen and the person described in the poem seems to be... 2. Instead, he is given a code, JS/07 M 378, as a way to be differentiated. In “The Unknown Citizen” by W. H. Auden and James Michie’s “Dooley Is a Traitor,” symbolic characters, symbolism, and irony are all used to indirectly criticize the target of each satirical work. Blog. . To my untrained eye, the well-known poet looked like a Homeric seer, a poet-prophet, looking somewhat like Robert Frost in his old age—probably because I have never traveled outside the country then and as a result, all the white people looked pretty much the same. Auden’s poem’s title, “The Unknown Citizen” begins with a verbal irony. The whole idea of the Unknown Citizen is a parody of the serious military concept of the Unknown Soldier, which was created in order to recognize the sacrifice of soldiers who died anonymously. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. It is ironic that the state is honoring the situation of a man brainwashed into lockstep conformity. When Mr. Auden finally appeared behind the podium, he struck me as a visionary: his long gray hair made him really look like a noble poet. BOOK ONLINE. The poem was first published on January 6, 1940 in The New Yorker, and first appeared in book form in Auden's collection Another Time (Random House, 1940). The poem ‘The Unknown Citizen’ is a satire. A Brief Digression About Meeting the Poet. Auden is a 32 line poem that utilizes a number of different rhyming patterns.The poem contains examples of both skillfully written rhyming couplets and seemingly patternless portions of verse that are variable in their end rhymes.. I love their wry sense of humor, the kind of dry New England humor found in Robert Frost, among others. In the poem “The Unknown Citizen”, Auden’s use of irony is easy to see. This unknown citizen is depicted as having never been fired, which translates, in the total context of the pervasive irony, he did not have a spine to stand up for his rights. The poem says he had everything necessary to the modern man but then says questions about freedom and happiness are... 3. The other is the unknown soldier, who acquired numerous monuments from the allied powers of World War 1. 16 May The Unknown Citizen Irony Essay The Health Spa. In fact, “He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be,” and not by his family or his friends. He had a social life as 'he was popular with his mates and liked a drink' • One example of irony that can be found in :The Unknown Citizen' is the phrase 'in the modern sense of an old--fashioned word'. Auden creates irony by playing with our expectations in, “The Unknown Citizen”. Lines 4-5 The irony continues to build in these two lines of the poem. Auden is my personal favorite. Such conformity, common among the “programmed automatons” in today’s society, is further strengthened by the facts that he was a due-paying union member, he was popular with his drinking buddies, he subscribed a daily newspaper, he was a law-abiding citizen, and he owned a “phonograph, a radio, a car and a Frigidaire,” just like the rest of the population. N.p.. "The Unknown Citizen" Summary: Fixed Form Rhyme Scheme Alliteration Assonance "We should certainly have heard," Metaphor Personification Allusion Symbolism Metonymy Hyperbole Understatement Parody Parallelism Tone Theme Auden, W. H.. "The Unknown Citizen." in the modern sense of the old-fashioned word, he was a saint. It is this same code that was also written in his epitaph. The question is absurd: Had anything been The poem is dripping with irony, as the speaker lists off accomplishments that aren’t accomplishments at all. Yet nobody knows his name; rather, he is known by only, say, his social security number: “To JS/07/M/378/.” He is a truly unknown citizen. Such careful dehumanization further intensifies the circumstantial irony. Maven Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. If you are at an office or shared network, you can ask the network administrator to run a scan across the network looking for misconfigured or infected devices. Parodies and Irony. . he held proper opinions for the time of year,” “. The speaker of the poem then obfuscates the individuality of this unknown man by calling him not by his name but by “One,” a mere impersonal pronoun, a John Doe, whom nobody knows or cares to know. Written in 1939, the poem was one of the first Auden wrote after he moved from Britain to the United States. Was he happy? In short, he affirmed with me later that if you are a born writer, you cannot help it, for being one is almost a pathological condition from which you cannot escape—you just have to write to breathe. A great analysis, thanks for your effort. The unknown citizen of this poem, based on their personal history and place in society during their lifetime, was speculated by society to have been happy and figured that if he was not, they would have known. Irony in the Unknown Citizen. I-Hsin Kai The speaker of W. H. Auden's poem “The Unknown Citizen” praises a nameless citizen who to the state was a “saint,” but Auden satirizes the speaker and his values by making it clear that the citizen, by devoting himself entirely to serving the “Greater Community,” had lost his identity. Such quaint words, such as “saint” and “the Greater Community,” have no real meaning, a mere bombastic blast for this nameless Joe Sixpack that removes him further from being a real human with flesh and blood. Irony in the Careful Depiction of the Unknown Citizen The poem bristles with irony – a consequence of the humble citizen’s indignation. It does not have the human resources to counter unemployment and facilitate the citizen’s security. He is a conformist, an unthinking robot, no one will ever miss even if he gets run over by a car. In this poem he is describing a citizen who is essentially unremarkable. Unknown Citizen As Satire Satire Satire is writing that ridicules the faults of individuals, groups, institutions, society, culture, or even humanity in general Although satire is often humorous, its purpose is not simply to make readers laugh but also to correct the shortcomings that it points out.Satire is therefore a form of persuasive writing. The main type of irony used in "The Unknown Citizen" is situational irony. While the 'unknown citizen' has been portrayed as a 'model citizen' he is human, not a robot or 'saint'. The poem is a satire on the “programmed” existence of a modern factory worker. A bug rancher, he also keeps honeybees. There is a verbal irony within the poem “The Unknown Citizen”. In W. H. Auden’s poem “The Unknown Citizen”, he uses irony to make the reader think about what the unnamed man thought about his life. Performance & security by Cloudflare. I believe, personally, the Brits are good at irony. “The Unknown Citizen” is an occasional poem. Although the speaker tells us he was married, we do not know who his wife was, let alone his children. This person has not done anything wrong, and describes him by saying, “and all the reports on his conduct agree, that, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a saint”. Why would “the State” erect a monument to memorialize the death of this automaton who did not own an opinion: “When there was peace, he was for peace; when there was war, he went.” Such conformity pokes fun at modern existence, lacking individuality and freedom. “The Unknown Citizen”, was written during World War II in the 1940’s. A Short Analysis of W. H. Auden’s ‘The Unknown Citizen’ Its title echoing the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, ‘The Unknown Citizen’ is a poem that demonstrates W. H. Auden’s fine ability to fuse irony and wit with pathos and pity. ABOUT US. . D. in English, Dr. Kim teaches at Murray State College. Finally, the speaker of the poem then questions the sanity of such dead society with cut-throat sarcasm: “Was he free? In “The Unknown Citizen,” Auden is criticizing the way average citizens live their daily life. English, Dr. Kim teaches at Murray State College the word a car for the time of,! 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