The Unknown Citizen
(To JS/07/M/378 This Marble Monument Is Erected by the State)
He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be
One against whom there was no official complaint,
And all the reports on his conduct agree
That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a saint,
For in everything he did he served the Greater Community.
Except for the War till the day he retired
He worked in a factory and never got fired,
But satisfied his employers, Fudge Motors Inc.
Yet he wasn't a scab or odd in his views,
For his Union reports that he paid his dues,
(Our report on his Union shows it was sound)
And our Social Psychology workers found
That he was popular with his mates and liked a drink.
The Press are convinced that he bought a paper every day
And that his reactions to advertisements were normal in every way.
Policies taken out in his name prove that he was fully insured,
And his Health-card shows he was once in hospital but left it cured.
Both Producers Research and High-Grade Living declare
He was fully sensible to the advantages of the Installment Plan
And had everything necessary to the Modern Man,
A phonograph, a radio, a car and a frigidaire.
Our researchers into Public Opinion are content
That he held the proper opinions for he time of year;
When there was peace, he was for peace; when there was war, he went.
He was married and added five children to the population,
Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of his generation.
And our teachers report that he never interfered with their education.
Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:
Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.
Commentary
I’ve always enjoyed this poem as a brilliantly composed portrait of a bureaucracy taken to the excess – the point where it dehumanizes individuals, its subjects, in the absolute. Auden meticulously selects his words to express the obsessive inanity of this mindless, mechanized State which knows its citzens only by letters and numbers, evaluates their worth with statistics, and has a formulaic standard for virtuous living. The tone of the final two lines – a spokesperson’s spin on the situation – is both ironic and chilling.
The ultimate question, of course, is whether this is a portrait of a society to come or perhaps the society we already inhabit.
Jacob Russell.
Auden’s biography from www.poets.org:
Wystan Hugh Auden was born in York, England, in 1907. He moved to Birmingham during childhood and was educated at Christ’s Church, Oxford. As a young man he was influenced by the poetry of Thomas Hardy and Robert Frost, as well as William Blake, Emily Dickinson, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and Old English verse. At Oxford his precocity as a poet was immediately apparent, and he formed lifelong friendships with two fellow writers, Stephen Spender and Christopher Isherwood.
In 1928, Auden published his first book of verse, and his collection Poems, published in 1930, established him as the leading voice of a new generation. Ever since, he has been admired for his unsurpassed technical virtuosity and an ability to write poems in nearly every imaginable verse form; the incorporation in his work of popular culture, current events, and vernacular speech; and also for the vast range of his intellect, which drew easily from an extraordinary variety of literatures, art forms, social and political theories, and scientific and technical information. He had a remarkable wit, and often mimicked the writing styles of other poets such as Dickinson, W. B. Yeats, and Henry James. His poetry frequently recounts, literally or metaphorically, a journey or quest, and his travels provided rich material for his verse.
He visited Germany, Iceland, and China, served in the Spanish Civil war, and in 1939 moved to the United States, where he met his lover, Chester Kallman, and became an American citizen. His own beliefs changed radically between his youthful career in England, when he was an ardent advocate of socialism and Freudian psychoanalysis, and his later phase in America, when his central preoccupation became Christianity and the theology of modern Protestant theologians. A prolific writer, Auden was also a noted playwright, librettist, editor, and essayist. Generally considered the greatest English poet of the twentieth century, his work has exerted a major influence on succeeding generations of poets on both sides of the Atlantic.
W. H. Auden was a Chan,
and divided most of the second half of his life between residences in New York City and Austria. He died in Vienna in 1973.
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From the Wondering Minstrels mailing list, 1999–2008.
Amit Chakrabarti · 2 April 2000
I first read this poem when I was very young. To be sure I didn’t fully understand the import of every phrase, but nevertheless I enjoyed it. I recall sensing depth in this poem. At that time, I wasn’t interested enough in poetry to know Auden’s name, so the poet was forgotten.
Until now. Thanks for bringing this marvellous poem back into my life.
- Amit.
rhines757 · 17 March 2002
This poem by W.H Auden is an obvious jab at society and it’s governing population. The author writes if the citizen was “…free? Was he happy? The question is absurd: Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.” Basically, this conveys to the reader that the author thinks that a person is only known if something bad should happen; that is, if one is involved in a scandal, or has a wrongdoing inflicted upon him. Irony is also seen in the fact that the citizen is “unknown,” for it seems that this man has done everything right, and for this he should be commended. Auden makes his view towards society clear through “The Unknown Citizen,” that is, that one is only recognized if, somehow or another, his name is tarnished.
Paul Murphy · 23 March 2002
Instead of this poem being a criticism of our society, I believe that Auden is criticizing communist or marxist society! Afterall, “The Unknown Citizen…..served the Greater Community” from the sounds of it, this citizen did everything he was told (he worked in a factory, was for peace during peace-time, went to war at war-time)
Paul Murphy
JFWF1 · 10 August 2003
I think Auden’s poem is more like the facism of the US govt today.
Dela · 26 December 2003
In WH Auden’s poem, the speaker is the governement or the state. It views the individual as statistics, figures, numbers, data. The time period in which Auden lived/wrote this seems to affect his protest that’s protrayed in this poem. For example, during the Great Depression, social security is coming into use, and althought it is great, it greatly diminished the individual into numbers that can be tracked down. Thus, I think Auden is criticizing how a democracy is allowing the state to become more and more powerful to the point where it’s morphing into some kind of dictatorship. Moreover, the “unknown” citizen is praised and used as an example in the story shows how the so-called democratic society encourages its people to become average. No, even more than just average. The state wants the people to cease to be individuals with their originality in actions and thought, their pride for their work, and become a unit in the Greater Community, or the bureaucracy. This bureaucracy is unlike others because it revolves around technology. It could not ‘live’ without technology, because it is technology that has allowed the governemnt to become so powerful and almighty. Thus, technology has taken over the lives of individuals; reducing them to mere numbers that is part of the Machine, or the bureaucracy.
Robin Wilson · 28 December 2003
I think Auden is against any unthinking bureaucracy - soviet, fascist or capitalist. His point is that people who are good at measuring things often fall into the trap of assuming:
* things which can be measured easily are more important than
* things which can be measured with difficulty and much more important than
* things that cannot be measured at all.
In practice, for most people, our personal priorities are just the other way up.
The sin lies not in measuring things, but in ignoring things like freedom and happiness that are very hard to measure.
Robin Wilson.
Edward Chen · 15 March 2004
I believe Auden is trying to say that a person should not try to satisfy everybody else his entire life, since he “satisfied his employers”, “wasn’t a scab or odd in his views” and “his reactions were normal in every way”.
The title also fits this idea because if a person strives to satisfy everybody else his whole life, nobody will really know him which leaves him “unknown”.
-Edward
My view might be wrong, but I think this is a new way to see Audens opinion.
FattyBones · 4 April 2005
This poem is named to echo the Unknown Soldier monument at the Arlington National Cemetery near Washington DC.
It is not a satire on bureaucracy, but an attempt to humanize the Unknown Soldier. ( \____/ )
(_FattyBones)
Madisin · 4 April 2005
i think this poem , even tho that it talks about an unknown citizen, he is actually not ‘unknown.’ this is because he has been checked by so many people and groups (over 10) , so how can he be unknown if so many people spent time studying him? just my thoughts~
sam · 20 July 2006
This poem by W.H. Auden reminds me of a girl named Monique.
I’d love to tap her one day. Maybe in the not too distant future. None the less, she thinks that statistics and numbers are the dehumanisation of humane
society.
She also tastes like Vanilla. <3 U
Ezequiel · 9 October 2006
To answer to that question, Stan Smith, about the number on the epitaph, I’m almost 100% sure that it is referring to the tombsonte and how it indicates how depersonalized the state has become–everyone is simply a number to the state.
Justin Gibson · 21 February 2007
Just wanted to let you know there’s a small typo:
“That he held the proper opinions for he time of year;”
should read:
“That he held the proper opinions for the time of year;”
Minor, but just wanted to let you know.
Thanks,
Justin