I need to compare or contrast the these two poems for my essay I need help with my arguments."Musee des Beaux Arts" and "The Unknown Citizen" by W....

First of all, if you have not done so already, you may
wish to read some biographical and critical essays on W. H. Auden (see links below). 
Then, after you have read these, you may find the direction that you wish to take in
your comparison of the two poems.

One recurring theme of
Auden's poetry which is evinced in both "The Unknown Citizen" and "Musee des Beaux Arts"
is the universal apathy of the modern world and how the individual life has become
marginalized.  Now, there are two approaches to the writing of an essay on this
theme: 1. You can argue that the marginalization of the individual life is the theme of
both poems. Or, 2. you can argue that Auden points to this theme very pointedly with
satire.  The latter, an argument for technique, is a more sophisticated approach and
less likely to be used by other students than the thematic
one.

As there is much that you can find on your own on the
thematic argument, suggestions on the satiric will be offered here:  Much disturbed by
the "amoral insouciance" of people during the atrocities of his age, Auden satirizes the
marginalizing of unrecognized soldiers' deaths by the erection of the monument to the
unknown soldier by various governments in honor of those who conformed. Likewise
the "unknown citizen" who is merely given a number is honored for his mediocrity and
conformity.  

In his poem "Musee des Beaux Arts," Auden
again satirizes the marginalization of the individual life, remarking that the Old
Masters painted children who "did not specially want" the "miraculous birth" of Christ
to happen, skate on a pond at the forest's edge, and "the dreadful martyrdom" is reduced
to a corner where the "dogs on with their doggy
life."  

Clearly, the insignificance that is given to
occurrences such as the life of Christ and the fall of Icarus from the sea in "Musee des
Beaux Arts" along with the reduction to mediocrity and insignificance given to the
"Unknown Citizen" who is now a mere number, but lauded for his mediocrity, points to
Auden's satire of modern life's sterile norms.  That civilization distorts, rather than
ennobles man's natural impulses is certainly an innuendo of Auden's
satire.