Linguistics Semantics Structure Culture

Specific
Evidence
Except for
the War till
the day he
retired
He worked in
a factory and
never got
fired (9-10)
(To JS/07 M
378
This Marble
Monument
Is Erected by
the State)
(1-3)
Title : The
Unknown
Citizen
He was found
by the Bureau
of Statistics to
be
One against
whom there
was no official
complaint
(4-5)
For his Union
reports that he
paid his dues
(13)

ABAB: lines 5-8:
complaint/agree/saint/Community
Couplet:
(Our report on his Union shows it
was sound)
And our Social Psychology workers
found (14-15)
No rhyme:
That he held the proper opinions
for the time of year; (26) falls in
between rhyming lines (content,
25 and went, 27), but no
subsequent lines rhyme with this
one.
Greater
Community (8)
Eugenist (29)
Both Producers
Research and
High-Grade
Living declare
(21) poke fun
at CR and
Response Satiric elegy;
written in
varying
rhyme
schemes.
Simple
diction; full of
organizations
who have
analyzed the
man
Compares the
UC to an
Unknown
Soldier, only
this man has
apparently
done nothing
great. He has
no identity and
follows all
norms. The
government
defines him by
statistics and it
is apparent that
he is unhappy.
Rhyme scheme varies; switches from
ABAB to couplet form; sometimes,
there is no rhyme. Essentially, this
poem is a list of organizations who
have gathered statistics about an
unknown man who would easily
blend in with everyone else in this
fictional society.
Not an actual
society, but
pokes fun at
actual societal
organizations,
such as
Consumer
Reports and
Good
Housekeeping; a
reminder of how
easily one can
be defined by
statistics.