In W. H. Auden’s poem the “The Unknown Citizen”, the words portray a perfect man in society. As someone reads the poem a person can easily visualize a depiction of exactly what the poem is titled, a citizen that is not known at a personal level. That is why someone needs to read between the lines to unearth significance, animosity, and purpose to the poem. The poem, “The Unknown Citizen”, has no true struggle as someone reads through the entirety in literal terms. Yet when a person stops to think about the true meaning of the poem the substance becomes evident. The poem reveals conflict between individualism and what a impeccable society expects out of an optimal citizen by showing lack of feelings, identity, and original thoughts.
First, there is a great shortfall of feeling in the poem. There is no mention of the citizen’s inner thoughts. There is no acknowledgment of dreams, hopes, fears, or future prospects. The entirety of the poem is void of all feelings to the extent that the reader does not even know anything about the narrator of the poem. In line two, “One against...
This is evident through the symbolism of the ears at the end of the poem. Once he rudely tells the speaker that he will not help her people at all, the speaker tells us that “some of the ears on the floor caught this scrap of his voice. Some of the ears on the floor were pressed to the ground.” The ears are divided into two different types: the ones that hear the colonel and the ones that do not. All of the ears are said to be on the floor because they represent the people in the worst living conditions who are living below everyone else. Each of these types also represents a portion of the struggling population when a problem arises. Some of the population hears what is going on and reacts to the issue, and the rest of the population turns away and ignores the problem. Furthermore, it is evident that the speaker wants us to speak out because she is doing it herself. The poem begins with “what you have heard is true” because the speaker wants her audience to know that the rumor that brewed from her story is true. The poem then goes into detail about what happened, and the speaker wants us to be disgusted by what has happened so that we act to help her. The speaker wants us to be the ears that hear her. The poem is a call to action for all of the people in El Salvador in that time
and that we should help those less fortunate than ourselves. In this I essay I have shown how successful the poet was in making me share this view by using his thoughtful and intense language, word-choice and imagery techniques.
Like in the poem, illiteracy leaves a person vulnerable to be taken advantage of. This poor soul unknowingly signed away the rights to his own freedom by leaving his mark.
The ethical life of the poem, then, depends upon the propositions that evil. . . that is part of this life is too much for the preeminent man. . . . that after all our efforts doom is there for all of us” (48).
Throughout the poem, the speaker gives the impression that the justice system within the nation is invalid, therefore it impacts negatively. Since the government is not assisting the citizens as much as they should, the people－society, have to take actions into their own hands. For instance, Stafford asserts, “justice will take us millions of intricate
Whether the reader sees the satire or not depends on the reader themselves. Those who see this poem may not realize they're guilty of believing that the love and patience in stanza one exists. The presentation of this argument works because it seems sweet at first glance, logical when looked at again, and satirical when looked at against the views of the society.
It describes how the conservative farmer follows traditions blindly and the isolated life followed by him. It reflects how people overcome physical barriers and that later in life come to their social life too. Where a neighbor with a pine tree, believes that this separation is needed as it is essential for their privacy and personal life. The poem explores a paradox in human nature. The first few lines reflect demolition of the wall,?Something there is that doesn?t reflect love a wall?
The structure can also be seen as an example of the strict organizations that the evaluators of the unknown citizens were looking for and found in him. It’s very factual and emotionless and it addressees the fact that all society looks for is complacency and cooperation with rules in their citizens. “Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd: Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard,” (The unknown line 28-29). The poem ends with a rhyming couple, comparing the two most important lines in the poem. After all the unconventional and cold processes this man had to go through, the speaker asks the important questions, but is disregarded. The bureaucracy which is a symbol for society sticks to the viewpoint that since he was within the parameters of normality then he must have been alright. The excoriate tone of the speaker towards the Government is also expressed by the poet W.H Auden. At an interview he is asked about government and he responds: “I think we should do very well without politicians. Our leaders should be elected by lot. The people could vote their conscience, and the computers could take care of the rest.” He simply doesn’t want the Government to gain power and treat us like pawns in their game of normality and complacency instead of human beings; which is being depicted in the poem “The Unknown
Change for society is challenging, but one of the most wonderful things about society is that change is always possible. “The Unknown Citizen” is such a perceptive poem because it invites people to contemplate what their life means to those around them and grow concerned that people see them just as superficially as they see everyone else. Meanwhile, Endgame and Mrs Warren’s Profession both contain situations that show the harsh judgments that society willingly places on its own. Together, all three works show people that society’s method of judgment is a flawed paradigm and that the people in society are part of the problem.
To me the poem seems like a lament for the poverty of these people and
Auden’s “The Unknown Citizen” reveals the unfortunate reality about conformity and its consequences. The prophecy proclaimed in the poem, that individuals in society shall eventually succumb to the pressures of conformity, is exceedingly real as, in the modern world, government and government rule combine together as a machine to rid society of its outliers. All in all, this masterpiece captures the future of society and the individual’s eventual fate.
In "The Unknown Citizen," Auden is implying that people are statistics and easily conformed to the normality of society. Throughout the poem, Auden portrays the character as being an all around normal citizen and "one against whom there was no official complaint." In lines 4 and 5, the speaker describes the character as a "saint" and "for in everything he did he served the Greater Community." He served in war, never got fired from his job, popular with his mates, and "normal in every way." Auden develops the theme by describing the character's life through the research of different bureaus, researchers, and psychology workers. Each one of these descriptions point to the same idea that the character is a normal and obedient citizen. In line 10, the Union reports showed that he "paid his dues" and "it was sound." The "researchers in Public Opinion are content that he held the proper opinions for he time the time of year; when there was peace, he was for peace; when there was war, he went." By using all these description from state bureaus and agencies,...
The 1950’s beatniks gather around coffeeshops, writing and grumbling about the unfairness of the government and society’s closed mind. Today, youth gather around their laptops and type away, despairing over the unfairness of the government and society’s closed mind. Allen Ginsberg’s poetry embodies those angry youth. His unique choices in diction, symbolism and imagery artfully conveys his criticism against the wrongdoings of Uncle Sam and his subjects. Through his poem America, Ginsberg reaches out to all generations of people and exposes the ethical mistakes that both the government and society as a whole make, and these mistakes are classic in the sense that it is always a mistake that everyone keeps repeating.
Moreover, these various fragments all combine to instill a sense of ambiguity throughout the poem. In a sense, as the poem progresses, the audience discovers further and more troublesome questions regarding its message and its implications. The audience, perhaps, even begins to wonder if there are indeed absolute answers or whether Coleridge consciously intended to create an unresolved poem. Amid this unsettling tumult of questions, one is left to dedicatedly follow Coleridge’s journey in a sequential manner in an attempt to consider and ponder these ambiguities as they arise. Inevitably, however, lingering questions will ...
Claudia Rankine is a Jamaican woman born in 1963 raised in Kingston and New York City. Her early life traces back to when she studied at Williams College, where she then decided to pursue an MFA at Columbia University. Since completing her education, she has published collections of poetry, anthologies, and has received many awards and fellowships. She is currently the Henry G. Lee Professor of English at Pomona College as well as a chancellor in the Academy of American Poets. To say that Rankine has reached a bounty of success in her life is an understatement. In Citizen: An American Lyric she expresses the social struggles