The title of this poem, "The Unknown Citizen", is the only time this phrase is mentioned and is basically the key that the reader will not know the identity of man. The speaker seems to be reading a eulogy that brings out an ironic contrast in this poor man's life. Although the speaker congratulates the citizen, his word choices reveal a condescending tone. He speaks of the citizen as if he were a good little boy and the speaker was the teacher. The reader is given endless information about the man, but none of it is personal. The rhyme scheme of this poem makes the tone somewhat humorous, but for the most part it is ironic and sarcastic. At the end, the speaker states that if something was wrong with the man, they would definitely have heard it. But when asked if the man was happy or free, the speaker replies that the question is absurd. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The diction of this poem can be considered complex. The reader could analyze this poem over and over and would probably have a different opinion about the poem. This is how Auden wanted the reader to want to know more so they could fill in the gaps. The syntax of this poem is unusual, in lines 5 and 6 it says: “For in all that he did, he served the Greater Community. Except for the war until the day of his retirement,” specifying that the man was a saint throughout his life, except when he was called to war. The vocabulary of this poem is also old, for example the man is said to have “everything necessary for a modern man, a phonograph, a radio, a car and a refrigerator”. This gives readers the feeling that Auden probably wrote this poem during World War II. This poem does not use many similes and metaphors. In fact, it sometimes seems deliberately unpoetic. The only metaphor found was the comparison between the Unknown Citizen and a saint. The word "saint" is a religious term, so the unknown citizen cannot be one, except in the modern sense of the term. In line 20, it says that man had everything necessary but mentions nothing about the basic necessities needed to survive like food, water, etc., making it hyperbole. Auden hardly used any sound devices in this poem, well at least not many that one could choose from. Which is a bit strange considering most poets use this to their advantage to create a greater emotional response from the reader. He certainly had plenty of opportunity to do this and might have made the poem a little more interesting if he had done so. The only thing I noticed was the use of alliteration here and there. For example, in line 21 it is written “A phonograph, a radio, a car and a refrigerator” where the repeated consonant would be the vowel A. Once read aloud, I was able to see that this poem did not follow a standard rhyme scheme. It alternates between a few different simple rhyme schemes. The poem starts with an ABAB pattern, then moves to a couple of rhymes, but after that it starts to skip around after a while. Lines 8-13 follow the ABBCCA pattern, with the rhyme scheme beginning with the word "Inc." I wasn't sure Auden would be able to come up with a rhyme, but sure enough, in line 13 he uses "drink." The two words are so far apart that I didn't even know they rhymed until I read the poem aloud several times. Finally, the rhythm of the poem focuses roughly on the anapest, a metrical foot that features two unstressed beats followed by an accented beat. For example, at the beginning,.