W.H. Auden's "The Unknown Citizen": Poetry Analysis

Introduction to Poetry and Its Purpose

The late Stanley Kunitz received just about every prestigious award and appointment that a poet could achieve. He was named United States Poet Laureate in 2000, designated State Poet of New York, and served as Chancellor Emeritus of the Academy of American Poets. He won the National Medal of the Arts, served two years as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, and won the Pulitzer Prize for his Selected Poems, 1928–1958. He died on May 14, 2006. The Academy of American Poets published a portion of an interview conducted with Kunitz regarding his thoughts on poetry:

"Poetry is the medium of choice for giving our most hidden self a voice — the voice behind the mask that all of us wear. Poetry says, 'You are not alone in the world: all your fears, anxieties, hopes, despairs are the common property of the race.' In a way, poetry is the most private of all the arts, and yet it is public too, a form of social bonding. It gains its power from the chaos at its source, the untold secrets of the self. The power is in the mystery of the word."

There are many mysteries surrounding poetry and poets throughout history. One such mystery is why a brilliant, high-profile poet like Langston Hughes had to struggle to survive financially. An article in the journal College Literature (Scott, 2006) points out that Hughes, by 1948, had published "twenty volumes of fiction and poetry, a broad range of magazine and journal articles, a host of short stories, a Broadway play, a Broadway musical, a Hollywood screenplay, eight radio scripts," and over a dozen popular song lyrics. Yet despite more than "a hundred appearances on the lecture circuit," Hughes "remained unable to support himself as a writer." While Hughes lived hand-to-mouth, William Faulkner was earning $1,250 a week as a writer during the 1930s and 1940s. Scott writes that the "problem" for Hughes was that he was Black and had been blacklisted by the anticommunist movement led by Senator McCarthy of Wisconsin. Hughes was offered, then denied, a poet-in-residence position at Texas Southern after "threats and intimidation" from white supremacist groups in Texas.

Being a brilliant, well-published poet does not guarantee financial success. Yet the satisfaction one receives from writing poetry can transcend financial reward. Jane Bates, a registered nurse writing in Nursing Standard, notes that writing poetry was "cathartic" for healthcare professionals — a way "to turn hurt and stress into something artistic." Bates also describes Julia Darling, poet, novelist, and fellow in health and literature at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, who has breast cancer and has been "sustained" by writing poetry throughout her chemotherapy and radiotherapy. "The imagery, rhythm and structure of poetry have helped her bring order to the chaotic emotions that inevitably accompany serious illness." As Darling herself put it, poetry "is what keeps me afloat."

The Struggles and Rewards of Being a Poet

At the heart of a poem is often its imagery. The website Poetry Magic suggests that imagery is "the content of thought where attention is directed to sensory qualities" — specifically "mental images, figures of speech and embodiments of non-discursive truth." There are several kinds of mental images, which also correspond to the sensual aspects of life: sound, taste, sight, smell, touch, bodily awareness, and muscular tension. These images are transformed into poetic imagery through metaphor, simile, allegory, personification, metonymy (an attribute standing for the whole), and synecdoche (a part standing for the whole).

Imagery is critical to poetry because poetry is a compact, concentrated series of words designed to invoke larger — even universal — meaning. Placing the most powerful images at the most poignant points in the poem is what builds a memorable work. Poetry Magic suggests that imagery should be used to "externalize thought," to "create mood," to lend "continuity," and to help "develop plot." When mixing metaphors, writers should avoid doing so "too wantonly."

The English Department at Gallaudet University explains that imagery rooted in bodily movement or physical sensation is called "kinesthesia imagery," while "synaesthesia imagery" involves "the use of one sense to invoke another" — as in the phrase "warm gesture," where the sense of touch and the sense of sight interact meaningfully (Smith, 2004).

Other components essential to understanding poetry's expressive power include tone (the poet's attitude toward the subject), theme (what statement the poet is making about the subject), and structure (the format through which the poem is presented). Together, these elements shape how a poem communicates its meaning and emotional resonance to the reader.

Key Components of Poetry

Wystan Hugh Auden, the author of the poem, was not at all an unknown citizen. He became a very well-known and highly respected poet. Born in England in 1907, he published his first book of poetry at age 21, and his first noted work, Poems, published in 1930, "established him as the leading voice of a new generation," according to Justin Erenkrantz, a University of California at Irvine author and lecturer (Erenkrantz, 2002).

Auden was once deeply steeped in socialism and Freudian psychoanalysis, but after becoming an American citizen, "his central preoccupation became Christianity and the theology of modern Protestant theologians," Erenkrantz writes. This biographical context is useful when approaching a poem like "The Unknown Citizen," which operates as a sharp satirical commentary on modern bureaucratic society.

The poem appears on its surface to be a cleverly written description of bureaucracy taken to extremes. It reads as a government-authored biography of a citizen who is recognized only by an ID number on his health card and who did everything correctly — even if there was nothing unique or creative to say about him. In the end, the question of whether he was happy or free is dismissed as "absurd" because, as the poet writes, if he had been in any kind of trouble, "we certainly would have heard."

The "Poetry Explications" resource from the University of North Carolina asks a series of diagnostic questions useful for unpacking the poem. What is being dramatized in "The Unknown Citizen"? The depersonalization of citizens in modern society. Who is the speaker? The government, speaking in unemotional, bureaucratic tones. What does the speaker say? That the unknown citizen did nothing wrong and followed all the rules — and that is precisely why he is "unknown": he never challenged the system or stepped outside its expectations. What happens in the poem? Nothing, except a recap of an ordinary life. He stood for nothing independently, because "when there was peace, he was for peace, and when there was war, he went." He was robotic, reliable, and loyal to what the government expected of him. When does the action occur? After his death. Where is the speaker? The "speaker" is the typewritten eulogy — the bureaucracy itself — inscribed on the gravestone. Why does the speaker feel compelled to speak? Because the "unknown citizen," like the "unknown soldier," must receive some recognition at the time of his passing.

Why does the poet choose one word over another in each line? Auden selects all the words that combine to make the unknown citizen sound cooperative and obedient. He was "normal" and "sensible"; he held "proper opinions"; he "satisfied" his employers without dazzling or disappointing them; he "never interfered" with his children's education; and there was "no official complaint" against him. He was, in every sense, nondescript and compliant. The poem invites the reader to ask what is missing from this portrait — and to feel its absence.

W.H. Auden and 'The Unknown Citizen'

Langston Hughes, the chosen poet for this paper, offers a striking counterpoint to Auden's unknown citizen. Where Auden's subject is defined by his invisibility and compliance, Hughes speaks with direct, defiant voice. His poem "I, Too, Am America" is a powerful assertion of identity and belonging in the face of racial exclusion:

I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.

Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen,"
Then.

Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed —

I, too, am America.

The poem's simplicity is its strength. Hughes uses the domestic image of being sent to eat in the kitchen as a metaphor for racial segregation and systemic exclusion. Yet the speaker does not despair — he laughs, eats well, and grows strong in anticipation of a future at the table. The poem is a declaration not only of endurance but of inevitable belonging.