"The Unknown Citizen" is so accessible it almost sounds like an elaborate joke. He was a master, for example, of the rhyming couplet (AA, BB, etc.), the simplest rhyme scheme in English. At a time when many poets were experimenting with obscure forms and new ways of using language, much of Auden’s poetry had more popular appeal. He is considered a "modernist" writer, but his work is unlike that of any other poet of the past century. As a poet, Auden is a chameleon capable of writing in many different forms and styles. Auden wrote "The Unknown Citizen" while living in New York, and the poem gives evidence of his culture shock when suddenly confronted with American-style chaos and consumerism. He was an Englishman who moved back to "the colonies" (the U.S.) in 1939, at the height of his creative powers. Scott Fitzgerald are three famous examples. During the 1920s and 30s, many American writers left the states to become expatriates overseas, particularly in Europe.
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