Auden

AUDEN

In Auden is the LACK OF IDENTITY.

He was influenced by Marx about his idea of alienation; according to Marx capitalism was the reason for modern alienation and frustration. The modern man feels powerless in front of his society.

Auden was a poet who was very socially committed. He thought that, through his poetry, ho could make his contemporary intellectuals aware of the social problems stimulating them to take action in order to solve these problems.

During his first period, which is called the English period, Auden thought of political solution. Then he was disappointed by Marxism, by the historical situation, and he gradually abandoned his ideas and adopted a new point of view which can be defined as religious or Christian. In fact his second period, called American period, was characterised by a search (quest) of spiritual meaning in life. Also his poetry abandoned the previous strongly provocative feature and became more concerned with spiritual themes.

THE UNKNOWN CITIZEN

It's a description of Modern man seen from the outside, from the official Bureau. This man is unknown, is referred  to with a number or initials.

He is a perfect citizen who accepted all that his society offered him; he is a hero, who is commemorated, but he is a vary common man: that is the extraordinary point of poem.

The meaning of the poem: man is a victim of capitalism

The speaker is not the poet: he could be a member of Bureau of Statistics.