Diction helps convey the irony of the deceasedÆs life, one that appears as unremarkable as the inscription on his tomb.
His response to advertisements was ônormal,ö he had ôeverything necessaryö materially, he had the ôright numberö of children and he ônever interferedö with his childrenÆs education (Auden 15 20 26 27). He worked in a factory, never got fired, owned a car, did not make waves as a laborer, and was liked by his peers. Everything the man did he did in service to the ôGreater Communityö (Auden 5). He tells us the Bureau of Statistics cites ôno official complaintö against the man who ôwas a saintö (Auden 2 4). He describes the ôunknown citizenö in a clinical manner. The speaker appears to be someone familiar with records of bureaucratic institutions.
Through the use of diction, rhyme, connotation, and other poetic devices, Auden brings to light the fact that having lived such a routine life the man was ôanonymousö while alive as much as he is as a corpse. statistical, account of an unknown male whose marble monument reads ôJS/07 M 378.ö The main theme of the poem is that the deceased lived a life so ôby the bookö that he is virtually unknowable other than in a statistical or clinical manner. AudenÆs The Unknown Citizen provides a bureaucratic, i.e.
