The Unknown Citizen by W.H.Auden

W.H. Auden-was an English poet he is known to be poetic genius who wrote in different verse forms and styles he was greatly influenced by poetry of William Blake Emily Dickinson and Robert frost he is also known to mimic their writing styles. 

The Unknown Citizen

He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be

One against whom there was no official complaint,

And all the reports on his conduct agree

That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word,

he was a saint,

For in everything he did he served the

Greater Community.

Except for the War till the day he retired

He worked in a factory and never got fired,

But satisfied his employers, Fudge Motors Inc.

Yet he wasn’t a scab or odd in his views,

For his Union reports that he paid his dues,

(Our report on his Union shows it was sound)

And our Social Psychology workers found

That he was popular with his mates and liked a drink.

The Press are convinced that he bought a paper every day

And that his reactions to advertisements were normal in every way.

Policies taken out in his name prove that he was fully insured,

And his Health-card shows he was once in hospital but left it cured.

Both Producers Research and High-Grade Living declare

He was fully sensible to the advantages of the Instalment Plan

And had everything necessary to the Modern Man,

A phonograph, a radio, a car and a frigidaire.

Our researchers into Public Opinion are content

That he held the proper opinions for the time of year;

When there was peace, he was for peace:  when there was war, he went.

He was married and added five children to the population,

Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a

parent of his generation.

And our teachers report that he never interfered with their

   education.

Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:

Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard. 

Analysis-  
Auden's this poetry is a kind of critical analysis for our current society and whom it considers an ideal citizen and how that citizens social life his policies his habits his family and everything that can be analyzed is analyzed the analyzers give him title of saint and say he served greater society yet because he was a common man they do not give his name preferring him as a common unknown citizen they tell us how he lived but the thing they do not tell his was he happy about his life was he free to take the decisions of his life or were they taken by someone else, but the authority does not relate to these questions because they have studied his whole life and if there would have been anything wrong they would have known