“He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be
One against whom there was no official complaint…”
He was a simple worker, with a humble educational background, always trying his hardest to meet the two ends of life together.
“…in everything he did he served the Greater Community…”
He tried his level best to serve the local people…through the gush of wind and heavy downpour…working desperately to keep the current of Urban Life flow undisrupted.
“He worked in a factory and never got fired,
But satisfied his employers…”
Every employer is always satisfied with workers who follow their instructions unquestioned and with unprotesting sincerity…He was therefore loved for his loyalty to the instructions of the authority, though rude and humiliating it may be.
“Yet he wasn’t a scab or odd in his views,
For his Union reports that he paid his dues…”
Certainly, the
“…he was popular with his mates and liked a drink”
“And his Health-card shows he was once in hospital but left it cured”
During one storm he got a nasty shock while trying to obey the orders of the authority…but he himself considered it to be an accident!
“And had everything necessary for the Modern Man”
Thanks to the ‘accident’ and the ‘compensations’ his authorities paid in order to suppress their own instructions of going out ‘lighting’ in a lightning-storm!
“When there was peace, he was for peace; when there was war, he went”
He was unresisting, unprotesting by nature I have already assured you…what else do you expect?
“He was married and added five children to the population”
His only concern was the well upbringing of his nestlings and all his labour was keeping this goal ever fixed in his mind. He dreamt of a real better prospect for them…not as unimpressive as his, but definitely worthy enough to mention.
But…
“Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:
Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.”
At least, The Unknown Citizen has never complained us of anything!
Quotes: The Unknown Citizen by W. H. Auden
Photograph: Author
CONGRATS SIR, I M, IN ONE HAND, HELPLESS & ON THE OTHER, GLAD TO SAY THAT MY FRIEND HAS A GREAT HAND OF WRITING. YES I DO HUMBLY ACCEPT THE FACT THAT I HAVE NEVER BEEN FORTUNATE ENOUGH TO GO THROUGH THE ORIGINAL TEXT BY W.H.AUDEN BUT YES THERE REMAINS A SMALL 'BUT' WITH A REMARKABLE SIGNIFICANCE AND THAT IS THE WAY MY FRIEND EXPLAINED EACH CHOSEN LINES/PHRASES WITH THE REASONS,LOGICAL CONSTRUCTIONS MAKE ME GRASP THE CENTRAL IDEA.
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