Absurd Perspectives in W. H. Auden’s The Unknown Citizen and Salah Abdel Sabour’s Winter Song: Comparative study

This paper has been concentrating on comparing between two poetic texts, W. H. Auden’s The Unknown Citizen and Salah Abdel Sabour’s Winter Song. The comparison is accomplished relying on principles of Albert Camus’ Absurdism. It is a comparative study that figures out differences and similarities considering specific perspectives in both poems. The study argues the images of modern man that have been embodied in these two chosen poems. The paper also studies how these poets employ symbolic language to express their sentiments and emotion toward the modern man in present and future; it is an investigation of the life of the modern man which is emptied from all creativity. Lastly, it infers that The individual presented by both poets complains that he/she has been divorced as if he/she is never born or come to the world. Life is filled with an endless suffering, pain, futility, emptiness, and restrictions. Therefore, the question which has been raised by Auden whether the individual is happy and free or not is explained in this paper. In both literary texts, the disappearance of happiness can be observed because happiness is a very part from the concept of freedom. The poets believe that the modern man is not totally free.