8.

THE UNKNOWN CITIZEN

“The Unknown Citizen” appeared in the collection, Another Time, in 1940. The poem
is intensely ironic and reflects Auden’s earlier work in which social, political and
economic concerns dominated his texts. It reveals a satirical portrait of a unknown
citizen, a citizen who represents the average man and his lack of personal identity
within modern society. Dehumanizing institutions as well as complacency on the part
of the citizenry are to blame for the lack of individuality. The poem appears to protest
against a world in which systems interested in scientific data fail to capture the human
quality of life, and mass organizations and commercial exploitation attempt to
obliterate originality within humankind. Within such a system, questions that demand
a subjective response, for instance, Was he happy? Become irrelevant. Happiness,
here, is naturally assumed, for, as a citizen, the individual has achieved complete and
utter “normalcy,” and in this society, being “average” is equated with being happy.
The greatest irony of the poem is that in many ways the audience is the unknown
citizen, for whether we realize it or not, our lives are largely shaped and dictated by
the great social, political, and economic forces that seek to establish conformity to the
attitudes and beliefs that they produce. One of Auden’s most famous lines, from the
poem “In Memory of W. B. Yeats”, states: “Poetry makes nothing happen.” This
sentiment rejects romantic tenets and the notion that poetry can change events;
however, it does hint at Auden’s belief that poetry can influence how we see and
understand the world around us, and by extension, ourselves. Such reflection appears
to be at the center of “The Unknown Citizen.”

Poem Summary

Lines 1-3

The opening lines of the poem establish an ironic tone as the speaker of the poem
begins to construct a satiric portrait of the average citizen. In the first line of the poem
the speaker turns to the “Bureau of Statistics,” and in line 3 to “reports,” as a source
for information regarding the “unknown” citizen. This is intensely ironic, for while the
Bureau does not identify the citizen by name, such a Bureau does contain detailed data
regarding every citizen. The data the Bureau collects identifies an individual in terms
of detailed facts and figures; however, it fails to truly identify those qualities which
distinguish him/her from all others. For instance, such data gives no information
regarding a person’s hopes, dreams, or desires, or those personal or idiosyncratic
qualities that distinguish each individual. Although certain “details” regarding a
person are contained in such reports, the individual remains truly unknown, and this is
the central irony the poem plays upon.
Lines 4-5

The irony continues to build in these two lines of the poem. In line 4, the unknown
citizen is referred to as a “saint” in the “modern sense” of the word. In the old-
fashioned sense of the word, a saint is someone who overcomes great challenges,
maintains their personal convictions in the face of intense adversity, usually stands
alone and often perishes while maintaining and defending their beliefs. Such a life, in
other words, is an extraordinary one. The poem, however, suggests that in the modern
sense of the word, a saint is one whose life in anything but extraordinary.

What distinguishes sainthood in this poem is a life of complete and utter ordinariness.
For instance, the unknown citizen always acts in the accepted or expected way. As
noted later in the poem, when there was war, he was for war; when there was peace,
he was for peace. This suggests that his convictions and beliefs are formed not
through individual reflection and personal conviction, but rather by the greater
political, social, moral, and economic institutions that seek and dictate conformity to a
standard thought and way of life. Thus, the unknown citizen ends up serving the
“Greater Community” by perpetuating the ideologies that the modern institutions
define, by fitting into the mold instead of breaking it.

Lines 6-8

These lines begin to detail the unknown citizen’s life of “sainthood.” The flat, matter-
of-fact tone is suggestive of a report, the very kind of reports referred to in line 3.
Such a compilation of data underscores the citizen’s lack of individuality.

The reference to Fudge Motor as being incorporated (Inc.) suggests that this is a large
and powerful company, an institution which can dictate social norms in a significant
way, much like the automobile industry does today. This company, like all the other
institutions noted in the poem, wields a great deal of power and therefore contributes
to the shaping of society and by extension the individual’s life.

Lines 9-11

This section of the poem underscores how average the unknown citizen is, for as line
9 notes, he conforms completely to the given, not questioning or challenging it in any
way. These lines also stress the scientific approach to understanding a man, an
approach that is deeply layered as the Union’s report is further investigated so that
another report examining the Union’s report is generated (line 10). Such a detail is
highly ironic for it deliberately exaggerates, while at the same time undercuts, the
validity of the “scientific” model and moves it into the realm of ridiculousness.

Lines 12-15

In these four lines the speaker continues to document the “normalcy” of the citizen
and compile a list of the organizations that influence his life, often in very subtle
ways. The Social Psychology worker’s role is to immediately identify any deviation
from the accepted standard and, by implication, correct such behavior. Auden’s poem
attacks such organizations and the society that encourages individuals to become mere
products of such forces rather than individuals in the true sense. In line 15 the poet
touches on the persuasive and insidious manners in which many modern organizations
work. The advertising industry is built upon the subtle persuasion that as a citizen one
needs whatever product they are selling. However, it is often the case that one does
not require that product in any real sense at all. By calling such commonplace
institutions into question, the poet encourages the reader to question his/her own role
in society and ask if he/she is not unlike the unknown citizen in some ways.

Lines 16-21

Here the poet continues to tabulate the characteristics of the “Modern Man.” The
language employed in these lines and throughout the poem is colloquial, and the
allusions to common possessions such as a radio and a car, and devices such as
installment plans, allow the reader to easily engage in and identify with the poetic
statement.

Lines 22-27

In this section the “normalcy” of the unknown citizen is perhaps most clearly stated as
the poem explicitly notes how average the citizen is, meeting all the standards of
norms expected of a person of his generation. Such complete conformity is suggestive
of the power that mass organizations possess in the modern industrial world. The
poem addresses the desirability of the citizen’s acceptance of this normalcy.

The reference to eugenics in line 26 is particularly striking, for eugenics is a branch of

The poem reaches its climax within the closing two lines of the poem. After outlining
the standards of normalcy dictated by society, questions regarding freedom and
happiness are absurd. They are ridiculous because the modern society defined in the
lines above is not concerned with individual notions of freedom and happiness. What
it seeks, the poem suggests, is quite the opposite: it encourages citizens to identify
happiness and freedom by its own terms. In other words, if one possesses the car, the
radio, the Frigidaire, and reflects the desires of the all-powerful institutions, accepting
peace when peace comes, and supporting war when war comes, then one would
naturally be happy and free. The poem ends on an ironic note, for if anything had been
wrong, the system and society the poem delineates would certainly have not heard.