The overall effect is like slogging through sucking mud -- there is a depressive inertia in the poem, as if one does not want to go on but must.
2) What does he mean by "blind skyscrapers"? What does this mean symbolically? The line before this one comments on the "neutral air" in New York (this is before they entered WWII), making the blind skyscrapers perhaps "blind" in the sense that they aren't taking sides; blind like Justice is blind. They are also blind to the evils being committed in Europe where war has been going on for awhile. All of this is symbolic; it is also possible that Auden is alluding to tall buildings of a bygone era, where towers and lighthouses -- the tallest building -- were built specifically to see.
3) in the seventh stanza... what is the "ethical life" of which he speaks in the first line? What is he alluding to? The ethical life Auden mentions in the first line is the day-to-day affairs of the people and the government; the mundane and orderly-appearing life of correct behavior....
Gallaudet.edu/englishworks/literature/poetry.html). Other components which are very important in understanding poetry's power to express include "tone" (the poet's attitude toward the subject); "theme" (what statement is the poet making regarding the subject being embraced?); and "structure" (the format through which the poem is present). The Unknown Citizen: Wystan Hugh Auden, the author of the poem, was not at all an unknown citizen. He became a very well-known and highly respected poet, in fact.
This is emphasized by his regret that he cannot take both roads and be one traveler: "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, / and sorry I could not travel both / and be one traveler..."(Frost,122) Also, when he decides for one road, he hopes he can take the other later, but afterwards realizes that this is no longer possible since one decision leads to another, and there is
Dylan's "The Times they are a Changing," Hughes' "Harlem: A Dream Deferred," and Auden's "The Unknown Citizen" all investigate the themes of human goals, and the impact of society upon these goals. Hughes' poem provides an analysis of how the deferment of life goals by society can result in great destruction to both the individual and society. Auden's poem also looks at the loss of life goals, this time through
Compare Ivan Ilych with Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken." Is there any similarity? What is Ivan's road? The speaker of Frost's poem takes the road less trodden, which has made all of the difference, he says. The poet strikes out a different, less charted path in the woods, implying he is a nonconformist. In contrast, Ivan Ilych takes a conventional path, the path too often taken. Taking this trodden path
As mentioned, an important aspect of the poem is its style, which is easy to read but is also complex and deceptively simple. The poem uses simple but powerful images in order to express the central theme of the critique of the way that governments and those in control and authority can deprive us of our freedom. For example, the poem states that the citizen, had everything necessary to the
From this came our insistence on the drama of the doorstep" (cited by Hardy 14-15). Grierson also notes that the early documentary filmmakers were concerned about the way the world was going and wanted to use all the tools at hand to push the public towards greater civic participation. With the success of Drifters, Grierson was able to further his ideas, but rather than directing other films, he devoted his time
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