The Unknown Citizen
W.H. Auden
Pre-reading
6. Vocabulary
Find the opposite word by adding a prefix. The words are:
normal
usual
ordinary
typical
personal
proper
human
complete
7. Vocabulary
Find the corresponding nouns. The words are:
noun
normal
passive
sensible
sensitive
anonymous
original
ironic
sarcastic
conform
Student A reads out the English adjectives to student B, and without looking at the task, student
B has to come up with the corresponding nouns. Student B then reads out the English nouns to
student A, and without looking at the task, student A has to come up with the corresponding
adjectives.
© Gyldendal, 2012
Post-reading
LEARNING CHECK
1. Written
assignment
a. Choose to be a specific present-day Danish politician and write a letter to the editor of the New
York Times about your view of what the ideal Danish citizen is like (150 words).
Find information about the New York Times and read examples of letters to the editor on the website
www.nytimes.com
Helpful links for writing your own letter to the editor:
The New York Times writer’s guidelines for letters to the editor:
www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/lettertoeditor.html
New York Times letters editor, Thomas Feyer, provides detailed answers to questions about what
kinds of letters get published:
www.nytimes.com/2004/05/23/opinion/23READ.html?ex=1141189200&en=1fd8b7f8078f4183&ei
=5070
NB: You may need to set up a user name and password to access the New York Times archives.
or
b. Write an ironic poem about the present-day ideal Danish citizen (same length as Auden’s poem).
In either assignment you must use four keywords from Auden’s poem.
WIDER CONTEXTS
1. Historical context: relate the theme of the poem to the time it was written in.
The poem was written in 1939. Try to relate the theme of the poem and the mentioning of eugenics
in the poem to the political situation in Europe at the time. You can read about eugenics on
Wikipedia or here http://www.faqs.org/health/topics/45/Eugenics.html
2. Autobiographical context: Find more information about Auden.
Find more information about Auden, and especially his sexuality. Is it at all relevant?
3. Literary Context: other work by the same author, “Stop All the Clocks.
Compare “The Unknown Citizen” and Auden’s poem “Stop All the Clocks” on page 95. You may
focus on language and imagery, structure and form, and/or attitudes and ideas.
© Gyldendal, 2012
4. Literary context: other work by a different author, George Orwell.
Find information about George Orwell’s novel 1984. Are there any similarities between the two
texts in the way society looks upon individuality and conformity?
5. Literary context: other work by a different author, William Blake, “London”.
Read William Blake’s poem “London” on p. 214 and discuss whether we find the same clanks of
the “mind-forged manacles” in the two poems.
© Gyldendal, 2012