W.H. Auden

W.H. Auden (1907-1973) was a twentieth-century poet who was somewhat modernist, but tended to "transcend labels". Half of his poems he wrote as an English citizen before WWII, and the second half as an American citizen after the war. Of his poems, I chose "The Unknown Citizen", written in 1939.
(To JS/07 M 378
This Marble Monument

Is Erected by the State)

He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be
One against whom there was no official complaint,
And all the reports on his conduct agree
That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a
   saint,
For in everything he did he served the Greater Community.
Except for the War till the day he retired
He worked in a factory and never got fired,
But satisfied his employers, Fudge Motors Inc.
Yet he wasn’t a scab or odd in his views,
For his Union reports that he paid his dues,
(Our report on his Union shows it was sound)
And our Social Psychology workers found
That he was popular with his mates and liked a drink.
The Press are convinced that he bought a paper every day
And that his reactions to advertisements were normal in every way.
Policies taken out in his name prove that he was fully insured,
And his Health-card shows he was once in hospital but left it cured.
Both Producers Research and High-Grade Living declare
He was fully sensible to the advantages of the Instalment Plan
And had everything necessary to the Modern Man,
A phonograph, a radio, a car and a frigidaire.
Our researchers into Public Opinion are content 
That he held the proper opinions for the time of year;
When there was peace, he was for peace:  when there was war, he went.
He was married and added five children to the population,
Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of his
   generation.
And our teachers report that he never interfered with their
   education.
Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:
Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.

This particular poem deviates from the standard expectations of modernist poetry as it is entirely a satirical commentary on the true uniqueness of man. The poem starts out with a message saying that  the following is for a marble monument for the citizen, beginning the satire. Throughout the poem, the speaker basically describes the things that the citizen had done in his life that was good, like serve in the army, not get fired, quietly live his life. However, because the man had lived a very quiet and cautious life, he was considered free because it was in his will. This is quite contrary to the speaker's beliefs, who believes that non-unique behavior does not equal freedom. The satirical nature of the poem is summed up with the two questions at the end of the poem; literally, the speaker is saying that "Of course! Of course he was free, he's just like everyone else so naturally we would know if he wasn't." The true meaning of what the speaker is trying to say is that what everyone else sees as freedom and happiness is simply just a highly conformist nature masked by the idea of a free country.
As I mentioned before, the poem doesn't very much align with modernist poetry. It is pretty independent in itself, but it does align slightly more with postmodern poetry due to the irony and satire present and the political issues it addresses. I also think it's interesting how Auden wrote this poem after he moved to America after the war, as this poem talks about a citizen's "free" life after the war.





I found the poem on this website:
http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/unknown-citizen