He stayed informed buying the newspaper daily, "And that his reactions to advertisements were normal in every way" (15). .
Much to the government's delight, "He held the proper opinions for the time of year;/When there was peace, he was for peace; when there was war,/he went" (23-25). The poet ironically concludes the poem asking the crucial questions of: "Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:/Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard" (31-32). It is ironic that the government knows so much about this man yet so little. Their statistics and 'researchers' could never answer such questions about a citizen's emotional well-being nor would they care to. The poem's title, referring to this man as "The Unknown Citizen" is quite contrasting of the actual amount of information the government knew, revealing the irony and underlying theme of the poem: the government knew everything about this man, except who he truly was. The government only cares to know that their citizens are conforming and obeying their expectations as another 'unknown citizen' in the crowd.
Another form of irony often found in poetry is situational irony, occurring when the final outcome of a poem is incongruous with the reader's expectations. Adrienne Rich uses a variation of situational irony in her beautifully written poem "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers". Narrated in the perspective of a niece or nephew, the speaker reflects on their Aunt and her embroidered works of art. The poet skillfully structures the poem in a way where each stanza gradually builds toward revealing the reality of Aunt Jennifer's life and the irony behind her art. The first stanza serves to paint an optimistic, colorful picture of the tigers Aunt Jennifer sews as "Bright topaz denizens of a world of green" (2), confident and fearless, "They pace in sleek chivalric certainty" (4).
