Mustafa Talib Jawad

Jabir Tbn Hayyan university for medicine and pharmaceutical Sciences, Iraq, Najaf

DOI : https://doi.org/10.47191/ijsshr/v7-i04-27

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ABSTRACT

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.

KEYWORDS:

Absurd, W. H. Auden, Salah Abdel Sabour, Winter Song, The Unknown Citizen, modern man

REFERENCES
1) Abdel Sabour. Salah. “Winter Song.” 1977. Trans. Lena Jayyasi and John ileath-Stubis. PoemHunter.com. 2014. https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/winter-song-15/.

2) Aljaberi, Mutaqadim. Tajaliyaat Alaghtirab Fi Shaear Salah Abdel Sabour. 2005. Ouargla University, Master's thesis.

3) Auden, W. H. W. H. Auden Selected Poems. Vintage Books, 1978.

4) Camus, A. (1991). The myth of Sisyphus and other essays. (O'Brien, J. Trans). New York: Vintage Books.

5) Camus, Albert. The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays. (O'Brien, J. Trans). Vintage Books. 1991.

6) Camus, Albert. The Myth of Sisyphus. (Alfred, A. Trans). Alfred A. Knopf. 1955.

7) Camus, Albert. The Rebel. Penguin Books. 2013.

8) Das, Biswarup. "The Tragedy of Human Condition: The Anonymity of Modern Existence and Auden’S the Unknown Citizen." American Research Journal of Humanities & Social Science, vol. 2, no. 10, 2019, pp. 44-47.

9) Poudel, uttam. Humanism in Crisis: Ironizing Panopticism and Biopowerin W. H. Auden’s “The Unknown Citizen”. International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences, vol. 5, no. 6, 2021, pp. 250-254.

Volume 07 Issue 04 April 2024