... "I"(15). The poem tells a story through the speaker's point of view so it is considered a narrative. Irony is the use of words to change the meaning of something. Irony is used to show one thing but to actually mean something else entirely. The use of Irony in poems can be very misleading to the reader in certain cases if it is taken to ... literally. A good example of Irony in a poem is in Henry Reed's "Naming of Parts" on pages 823-824. Reed uses irony to talk about war and how nature has nothing to do with things such as war. He relates bees to "assaulting and fumbling the flowers .....

• Word Count: 1272
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... silence. The pun in title on the word 'deaf', though truthful, plays on the word 'dead' and introduces the comic irony present through out the poem. The structure of the poem itself is an example of comic irony. It is written in ballad form where four-line stanzas alternate using iambic tetrameter on the first and third lines and iambic ... father's life (emphasized by the repetition of "he liked") with life with the inertia of his death. Furthermore there is also a bitter irony that Betjeman's father ended up in a place he liked least. The irony is highlighted by the use of a...

• Word Count: 1321
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• Grade Level: High School

... From his poem "The Mending Wall" to his poem "In a Disused Graveyard" he has shown several themes to his style of writing. Robert Frost presents irony, satire and special connection with nature in his poems to prove his thesis. In the following writings that are described below are all related in some way ... The living come with grassy tread to read the gravestones on the hill; the grave yard draws the living still, but never anymore the dead". The irony that is in this stanza is the dead will never be back again. In the second stanza Frost makes us realize why are they going and coming...

• Word Count: 1457
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• Grade Level: High School

... that when everyone else in the world is free and he and the other Negro slaves can not enjoy the world around them he knows how they feel. He uses irony to try and explain the feelings of pain and sorrow, as in the line " And pain still throbs in the old, old scars and they pulse again with a keener sting ... English. Dunbar preferred writing in Standard English; his dialect poems are used more for humorous purposes than meaning (Tuner 110). Dunbar is known for skillful work in placing rhymes and irony throughout his poems "We sing, but oh the clay is vile Beneath our feet, and long the...

• Word Count: 1623
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• Grade Level: High School

... 's sanity "until they realize the weight of his words and the meanings behind them. Using satire, which the Oxford American Dictionary defines simply as "the use of ridicule or irony or sarcasm in speech or writing,"" Swift is able to address many issues which he feels are of importance. Although they are very different works, the poem "A Description of a City ... in line 58 "St. Pulchre- refers to the church of St. Sepulchre in London that was right next to a prison. Swift points out the irony of building a prison next to a religious place of worship. The humor, irony, sarcasm and satir...

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... point she has put away all of her labors and leisure's that would not allow her to stop for death at the beginning of the poem. This further displays the irony of death because no one usually stops their life for death itself. Stanza three also is very uplifting, which still strikes the reader because death is normally thought of as ... the ground" (17-20). The speaker is viewing the place where she and Death will be living. From the description by Dickinson, I assume that she is referring to a grave. The irony of the newly weds home being a grave strongly suggests that the speaker is b...

• Word Count: 1277
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• Grade Level: High School

... the Modernist movement in art, Modernism became stylistically very different from the other theories. Predominant was the free use of indirect speech, the use of comparison, overwhelming use of personification, irony, metaphor, hyperbole, symbolism, discontinuous narrative, and psychoanalysis etc. and allusion to myths and stories from another time was also popular. Many Modernist writers used the stream of consciousness method. Thematically ... of stony machinery and amplified capitalism, which led people to ultimate loneliness. To achieve the above mentioned feelings and thoughts, the...

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... pathos. The "ghastly suit of grey" straight away emphasises his depression and his sorry state. Owen amplifies the image by using alliteration. Owen uses irony in the fourth line "saddening like a hymn" - A hymn is a song of praise, the irony is that there is nothing cheerful about his situation. It is also a simile, which creates even more sadness. The young boy sits in ... ...

• Word Count: 1300
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• Grade Level: High School

... from the New England countryside and his language from New England speech. Although Frost's images and voice often seem familiar and old, his observations have an edge of skepticism and irony that make his work, upon rereading, never as old-fashioned, easy, or carefree as it first appears. In being both traditional and skeptical, Frost's poetry helped provide a link between the ... the Night Before (1896) and The Children of the Night (1897), contain psychological portraits of the townspeople of Tilbury, whose inner depths of character are presented with acute understanding and irony. I...

• Word Count: 1931
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• Grade Level: High School

... pathos. The "ghastly suit of grey" straight away emphasises his depression and his sorry state. Owen amplifies the image by using alliteration. Owen uses irony in the fourth line "saddening like a hymn" - A hymn is a song of praise, the irony is that there is nothing cheerful about his situation. It is also a simile, which creates even more sadness. The young boy sits in ... ...

• Word Count: 1280
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• Grade Level: High School

... injustice of their situation, and are willing to accept and even embrace their fate uncomplainingly; however, the audience is fully aware of the grim realities of this profession. The dramatic irony in this poem makes the boys seen even more pitiful and also creates a tone of naivety. In Songs of Experience, the poem "The Chimney Sweeper" is essentially an ... ...

• Word Count: 1939
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... admitting that even after her husband's foolishness and "pure selfishness", she still misses "his hands, his warm hands on [her] skin, his touch". This use of irony is particularly effective, because readers understand that it is Midas' touch that his wife is most afraid of, and yet she longs desperately for his embrace. Duffy cleverly uses this ... ...

• Word Count: 1489
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... with the idea of domination or control: `my eye has permitted no change/I am going to keep things like this'. The way the hawk thinks and acts surely reveals a certain irony or analogy to the western way of thinking. The hawk thinks he is the most perfect thing that has been created: `It took the whole of Creation/ to produce my ... ...

• Word Count: 1635
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

... to die is "so permanent", "blank and true." However, Larkin contrasts this idea of death as being permanent and blank by characterizing the "poor soul." The irony here is that if there is nothing beyond death then there is no existence of souls. Nevertheless, it may be considered a "poor soul", because it never exists. " ... ...

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... power can do for humanity (Brewer 990). In Shelley's "Ozymandias,"" the title is used to convey the feeling that possessions do not equal immortality. Through use of vivid imagery and irony, Shelley explains that no one lives forever, much like the possessions they behold. For example, he refers to the crumbled stone statue with only legs and head remaining, standing in ... ...

• Word Count: 1748
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• Grade Level: High School

... primary sound device where long "o" sounds such as "so," "awoke," "rose," "tho,"" and "cold" "Ibid., p. 156" are all examples. The primary figure of speech used in The Chimney Sweeper is irony. This poem is ironic because there is a discrepancy between the appearance of what is said, the words used, and the reality of Tom's situation. Blake's diction begins in the first ... ...

• Word Count: 1529
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• Grade Level: High School

... is real while the latter is ironic. In mock epic, the high heroic style works not to dignify the subject but rather to expose and ridicule it. Therefore, the basic irony of the style supports the substance of the poem's satire, which attacks the misguided values of a society that takes small matters for serious ones while failing to attend to issues ... ...

• Word Count: 1903
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

... form. Further personification is read from the telephone "crying", which then exacts a human response by "[soothing] it to sleep with sounds", depicting our nature to calm and comfort. The contradictory irony arises when we provoke the telephone into activity which questions our integrity. Our "frailty" is established in the figurative "Only the young are allowed to suffer openly. Adults go to ... ...

• Word Count: 1520
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... form. Further personification is read from the telephone "crying", which then exacts a human response by "[soothing] it to sleep with sounds", depicting our nature to calm and comfort. The contradictory irony arises when we provoke the telephone into activity which questions our integrity. Our "frailty" is established in the figurative "Only the young are allowed to suffer openly. Adults go to ... ...

• Word Count: 1520
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... have done better. The poem is highlighting the responsibilities of a woman in the 1660's: she must tend to her child. Yet the narrator highlights this theme of sexism with intricate irony. Women were meant to tend to children and "get married" with almost no women gaining education and those who did viewed as outcasts (Dear. . . She is one of nature's gentlemen ... ...

• Word Count: 2494
• Approx Pages: 10
• Grade Level: High School

... piece of writing is very ironic. This could be carried even further when considering that I- the author of this commentary- am writing about an author writing about an author. The irony is reinforced as the reader finds his own place in the circle of publishing described. The idea of a circle might be the key to the deeper, universal meaning of " The ... ...

• Word Count: 1421
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... the dead of night spring, moonless night, starless and bible-black, with the author showing us the bizarre dreams of some of the town's inhabitants, who are presented with light irony and mild mockery. We get to know this dreamy village as though we had lived there all our lives. The theme of love and erotic desire is unfolded through numerous ... ...

• Word Count: 2071
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... his poem, metaphorically representing the copious amounts of soldiers who sacrificed themselves for their country, aren't getting proper burials, just horrendous mass burials. This type of event shows how the irony in Owen's title and the subject of the poem is giving the dead soldiers their only real burial. This highlights the huge, senseless sacrifice that the soldiers gave. The religious ... ...

• Word Count: 1397
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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... Frost and a Poetics of Appetite) so that the poem is, in effect, a failure, Kearns replies with, "If the Poem is indeed informed by such love, it becomes the most consummate irony of all, as it shows, despite one level of Frost's intentions, how fraternal love can transmute swords to plowshares, how, indeed, two roads can look about the same, be traveled ... ...

• Word Count: 2122
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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... or stressed syllables. In Old English, each line is divided by a pause, and the stressed syllables in the first half-line alliterate with those in the second half-line. Dramatic Irony is a situation in which the reader or audience knows more about the immediate circumstances or future events of a story than a character within it; thus the audience is able to see ... ...

• Word Count: 1599
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate