The Unknown Citizen
W. H. Auden -
1907-1973
(To JS/07 M 378
This Marble Monument
Is Erected by the State)
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.
Who
was W. H. Auden?
Wystan Hugh
Auden was an Anglo-American poet considered to be one of the greatest writers
of the 20th century. He aspired to become a mining engineer till his early
teens but soon realized his passion for words and understood that poetry was
his calling. In 1928 a friend hand-printed his collection titled ‘Poems’, but
it wasn’t until 1930 when another collection, also titled ‘Poems’, with
different content was published, that Auden was established as the leading
voice of a new generation. His father was a physician and his mother was a
strict and devout Anglican, and their collaborative teachings are reflected in
Auden’s poems in varying degrees. His poems were penned in almost all
imaginable forms of verse with his technical virtuosity being the highlight. He
based his poems on popular culture, vernacular speeches and current events with
his vast knowledge of a variety of literatures, art forms, social and political
theories, and scientific and technical information serving as the inspiration
and base. Several of his books and poems were written after his visits to
countries torn by political strife. It is said that from the 1930s he became
more of a left-wing political poet, but close scrutiny of his works suggests
that it was equivocal and appealed to the goodness residing in the heart of
every human being.
Childhood & Early Life
W.
H. Auden was born on February 21, 1907 in York, England as the third son to
George Augustus, who was a physician, and Constance Rosalie, a trained
missionary nurse and a strict Anglican.
He
had two elder brothers; George Bernard who became a farmer and John Bicknell
who grew up to be a geologist. Auden realized that he had lost his faith during
his teens.
His
first went to the St. Edmund’s School in Surrey and when he was 13 joined the
Gresham’s School in Norfolk where his first poems were published in 1923. He
eventually graduated with a third-class degree in 1928 from Christ Church,
Oxford University.
Career
Auden’s
first book titled ‘Poems’ featured an approximate 20 poems and was published
privately by his friend, Stephen Spender, in 1928.
After
graduation W. H. Auden went to Berlin for a few months and there he fell in
love with the German language and poetry. He returned, and in 1930 became a schoolmaster
in Scotland and England for the next five years.
In
1930 Auden published another collection by the same name ‘Poems’ which included
a drama and 30 short poems. The book featured his first dramatic work ‘Paid on
Both Sides: A Charade’ which was a fascinating amalgam of Icelandic sagas and
English school life.
In
several of his works he constantly highlighted the difference between the
biological and the psychological evolution of individuals and their cultures,
and maintained a certain obsession with unseen psychological effects (or his
so-called family ghosts).
In
the 1930s he was regarded as a political poet as his work expressed left-wing
views and he continuously analyzed the evils of Capitalist society. In many
poems he dwells on bringing a revolutionary change in the society through a
change in the hearts of the people.
He
also ventured into the film industry and he worked with the G.P.O. Film Unit
and wrote his famous verse commentary for the 1936 documentary film ‘Night
Mail’.
The
31-poem book ’Look, Stranger’ was released in UK, in 1936, and in U.S. in 1937
with the title ‘On This Island’, which was Auden’s preferred title.
His
work ’Letters from Iceland’ (1937) is a travel book in prose and verse,
co-written with Louis MacNeice, which features a series of letters and travel
notes by the two during their trip to Iceland. His poem ‘Spain’ was an account
of his experiences in Spain during the civil war of 1936 to 1939.
In
1940 varying reasons led him back to his Anglican Communion and he joined the
Episcopal Church. His return to religion also left an impression on his writing
as now the themes were more religious and spiritual, rather than political.
With more writing, he became quite comfortable and apt and soon started using
syllabic verses.
He
taught English at the Michigan University in 1941 for a year and then at the
Swarthmore College for the next three years.
In
the summer of 1945 he underwent a yet another inspiration-drawing stay in
Germany with the US Strategic Bombing Survey, where he studied the effects of
US bombing on the German morale.
He
settled in Manhattan after coming back from Germany and became a lecturer at
The New School for Social Research. He also served as a visiting professor at
numerous other colleges and became a naturalized US citizen in 1946.
From
1948 to 1957 he spent some months in Europe every year and incorporated these
experiences in several poems including ‘A Walk after Dark’ and ‘The Love
Feast’.
From
the early 1960s he started increasing his range of styles which could be easily
seen in his books like ‘Homage to Clio’ (1960), ‘The Dyer’s Hand’ (1962), and
‘About the House’ (1965).
The
poems ‘Prologue at Sixty’ and ‘Forty Years On’ were published in the 1969 book
‘City without Walls’ and described the poet’s life so far.
’A
Certain World: A Commonplace Book’ was published in 1970 and acted as a
self-portrait for Auden. The book contained his selected quotations in an
alphabetical sequence.
In
his last books of verses, ‘Epistle to a Godson’ (1972) and the unfinished
‘Thank You, Fog’ the themes focused on language and the poet’s ageing.