Comparativing of the poem “Richard Cory” and “The Unknown Citizen”

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In literature, satire has been used over the years by poets and play writers to express their feelings, perspectives, critism and praise openly without hurting, intruding or insulting people’s ideas, commentary or way of life (Quintero 94). Satire seeks to look at issues in society through humor. This aspect dates back to the Greek civilization where plays and poems were made in a satirical way to show how the political class and the rulers carried themselves in terms of decision making, leadership and economic prosperity.

In the poem “Richard Cory”, the poet brings out his ideas through irony. Irony is a figure of speech where words are used by a writer to convey or show the direct opposite of the literal or intended meaning. In works of literature, irony takes three distinct approaches, which are; situational, verbal or dramatic (Schmidt 16).

In verbal irony, it is depicted when the intended literal meaning does not meet the directed intention, for instance, when something is termed to be beautiful whereas it is hideous. Situational irony on the other hand is characterized when the disparity of an action fails to meet the intended expectation of the reader or the audience, the effect is not realized.

In the poem Richard Cory, the writer uses both verbal and situational irony to express his ideas, verbal irony is expressed through line 5-20 where we see the narrator showing us the difference between Richard Cory and an employee at his factory, irony comes in when Richard is said to be rich and well-to-do.

He is said to give freely to charity and lives an exorbitant and extravagant lifestyle. This is demonstrated by Richard Cory’s possession of a yacht and rumors of his parties, but irony comes out through the fact that his employee at the factory curses the life he lives. He curses his poverty.

Looking at the poem in the modern society, it satirizes the situation where the poor are paid poor wages at the expense of the companies, industries and governments that they sweat for. The poem brings out the theme of exploitation. Under normal circumstance, a person of Richard Cory’s stature and with all the positive attributes mentioned would be thought of being compassionate to his employees’ rather than being a blood seeker (Lewis 64).

The major irony in the poem Richard Cory lies in the line 25-30, where, although Richard Cory is deemed as being a happy person who had everything and who’s prosperity, power and influence is an envy to many, the fact that he puts a bullet through his head contradicts the happy notion.

Happiness is not derived from wealth and power, but from simple aspects such as integration and cohesion with other people. In a way, the poem satirizes the modern world concept where happiness is defined in terms of wealth and fame, but just like Richard Cory, those people possessing wealth and fame have faced inward discontent which shows that wealth is not a source of happiness.

Auden in his poem “The Unknown Citizen” uses both situational and verbal irony to drive his point’s home. From the heading to the body of the poem, irony is presented boldly by the author. According to the poem, the persona is widely known by the bureau of statistics, his union, his employer the Fudge Motor Inc, his drinking mates and so on, but the title of the poem depicts him as the unknown citizen.

In the poem, the author introduces us to what can be termed as a perfect person or citizen, who, according to all the pillars that constitute a society, did everything society perceived to be normal and genuine.

In line five the persona is depicted to be a saint. This line depicts a unique person who is what can be referred to as an ideal person. Although the tone of the poem is satirical, irony comes in the fact that he is the embodiment of perfection and happiness, but is it normal? The poet showcases the irony as a façade of the realities around the unknown citizen (Ross, 69).

The poem depicts a person trying to achieve perfection, but this is ironical having in mind that man is not perfect. The question that arises is whether striving for perfection leads to happiness, is the unknown citizen free? Did he have problems? Taking this poem in the modern day context, it can be said that it satirizes the human condition where freedom and happiness is thought to be achieved through perfection.

It is paramount to mention that materialism and lust in the poems are significant attributes towards the topic in discussion. Lust has since time immemorial; from biblical allusion to Greek mythology to modern day literature, been the cause of man’s demise. In the poem, lust of achieving what others have achieved and have as possession is brought ironically as the cause of those people’s destruction.

The question that thus arises is why aspire and lust for material wealth that will culminate in your own undoing. This aspect of lust satirizes the human condition in modern society in the fact that we should aspire to have material wealth that will aid our survival rather than speed our demise (Cyrus 94).

Works Cited

Cyrus R. K. Patell and Bercovitch Sacvan. The Cambridge History of American Literature: Nineteenth-century poetry. Volume 4 of The Cambridge History of American Literature. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Lewis, Derek. Excel Poetry Workbook Years 7-8: Excel Essential Skills Series. New York: Pascal Press, 2005.

Quintero, Ruben. A companion to satire: Blackwell companions to literature and culture. Wiley-Blackwell, 2007.

Ross, A. James. The unknown citizen: Aspects of man. Pennsylvania State University Press: Canada, 1969.

Schmidt, Dean, Jerry. Within the human realm: the poetry of Huang Zunxian. Cambridge studies in Chinese history, literature, and institutions. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

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Comparativing of the poem “Richard Cory” and “The Unknown Citizen”

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