What literary devices are used in the unknown citizen?

“The Unknown Citizen” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Alliteration. “The Unknown Citizen” features some some key instances of alliteration.
• Allusion.
• Caesura.
• End-Stopped Line.
• Enjambment.
• Irony.
• Rhetorical Question.

What is irony discuss in the context of the poem The Unknown Citizen?

Thus, “The Unknown Citizen” reveals irony. The poem is a bitter satire against forms of government that only want their citizens to conform to the governments’ norms. The State recognizes the unknown citizen for his abiding by the government’s and carefully examines and records all aspects of his life.

Why is the unknown citizen called a satire?

The poem is a satire of standardization at the expense of individualism. The poem is implicitly the work of a government agency at some point in the future, when modern bureaucratizing trends have reached the point where citizens are known by arbitrary numbers and letters, not personal names.

How is irony created in the Unknown Citizen?

Deeper into the poem, the speaker begins to refer the unknown citizen as a “saint” despite knowing his first or last name. Finally, Auden creates irony by providing two deep questions to the audience regarding the well being of the unknown citizen.

What are the literary devices in the Unknown Citizen?

Literary Devices in “The Unknown Citizen” Allusion: An oblique reference to some character or occasion in literature, history or mythology that enriches the meanings of the passage. The title of W.H. Auden’s poem “The Unknown Citizen” is an ironic allusion to the unknown tomb of unknown soldier. Irony:

Who is the author of the Unknown Citizen?

“The Unknown Citizen” was written by the British poet W.H. Auden, not long after he moved to America in 1939. The poem is a kind of satirical elegy written in praise of a man who has recently died and who lived what the government has deemed an exemplary life.

Why was the Unknown Citizen by W.H.Auden ironic?

Auden chooses to write with a dull, ordinary tone, which makes it ironic how the poem is supposed to be about a monumental praising of a citizen. Deeper into the poem, the speaker begins to refer the unknown citizen as a “saint” despite knowing his first or last name.