The Unknown Citizen A Poem by W.H. Auden: Summary and Analysis

The Unknown Citizen A Poem by W.H. Auden  Summary and Analysis The Unknown Citizen, first published in the Listener on August 1939, and later included in the Collected Shorter Poems, 1950, is a satire, not on the citizen, but on the way in which the average man in the street is controlled by the conventions of bureaucracy and the Welfare State which ignore the need for a man to be free and happy. W.H. Auden (1907-1973) In this poem, Auden shows that poverty and totalitarian regimes are not the only enemies of freedom. Human freedom is restricted in subtle ways in the so-called free capitalist states as well. The average modern man in a mercantile society is ridden heavily by the more technocratic, bureaucratic and other regimented establishments. The Unknown Citizen has no name; he has only a number, to whom the monument has been built and has been found to be without any fault. He was a saint not because he searched for God but because he served the government perfectly. He did not get di…