The Literary Devices Series: Irony in Poetry
- Julie Haase
- Oct 18
- 7 min read
Irony Defined
Irony is one of those concepts that can be hard to nail down. It can be easily confused with sarcasm, satire, coincidence, and plain old bad luck. (Ironic, don’tcha think?) In this post, we'll explore what irony is and look specifically at irony in poetry.
A basic definition of irony: A circumstance in which the actual is surprisingly different from the expected. (refer to photo above)
LiteraryDevices.net: "Irony is a literary device in which contradictory statements or situations reveal a reality that is different from what appears to be true."
JustPoetry.net: “Irony often relies on contrast between what appears to be true or expected and what actually happens.”
Writers.com: "At root, irony involves contradiction of our perceived reality.”
You can also find definitions that say that irony is when the opposite of what is expected happens; however, opposites are not required. If someone is accused of murder, but it turns out the alleged victim is alive or committed suicide or was the victim of a tragic accident, any of those realities could be ironic, whether they are the “opposite” of murder or not.
Types of Irony
There are three main types of irony plus a handful of subtypes. Here are the main three:
Verbal Irony
Verbal irony is when someone says something that is contradictory to reality. Poemanalysis.com describes it this way: "when a speaker says something that is in direct conflict with what they actually believe or mean."
We’re not talking about lying or saying something wrong by mistake. Verbal irony is intentional and often gets confused with sarcasm (see Irony vs. Sarcasm below).
Examples
Someone looks out the window at a raging blizzard and says, “What a beautiful day.”
Someone’s significant other says something rude and they respond, “I love you so much right now.”
Someone walks out of their doctor’s office with their badly sprained ankle in a boot and says to their friend, “Let’s go run some laps.”
Dramatic Irony
Dramatic irony occurs when readers know something that the characters don’t know, which allows readers to see the mistakes that the characters make based on missing or incorrect information.
Dramatic irony is great at building tension or creating hilarity because readers know that the characters are doing or saying the wrong things as they’re doing or saying them, leaving readers in a heightened state of anticipation or just rolling on the floor laughing.
Example
The most often used example of dramatic irony is in the climax of Romeo and Juliet. Readers know that Juliet is faking being dead, but Romeo doesn’t, which leads him to make the tragic mistake of taking his own life and her after him. And there’s nothing readers can do about it! Argh!
Situational Irony
MasterClass describes situational irony as being "when an expected outcome is subverted." In other words, situational irony is when reality is surprisingly different from what is expected. LitCharts also describes situational irony as “an unexpected, paradoxical, or perverse turn of events.”
Example
The quintessential—and absolutely everyone’s favorite—example of situational irony is O. Henry’s The Gift of the Magi in which a husband and wife at Christmastime do the unexpected in order to buy each other a gift. She sells her long beautiful hair to buy him a chain for his watch. He sells his watch to buy her a comb for her hair. The expectations for a happy Christmas are thwarted when the reality of the situation becomes clear.
This example is rather sad, but situational irony can also be hilarious or sweet or shocking or frightening. It all depends on the “situation” part of situational irony.
Irony vs. Sarcasm
Irony and sarcasm are easily confused, partly because something can be ironic and sarcastic at the same time. But they’re also very different in some ways.
Sarcasm is always verbal, which makes it very similar to verbal irony except that…
Sarcasm is always negative and directed at someone, while verbal irony is not (it can be, but there’s no requirement for it to be, like there is with sarcasm).
Sarcasm deals in opposites while verbal irony is just about the unexpected.
Sarcasm is not a literary device. It's just a way for someone to be snarky.
Irony vs. Satire
Again, these two are easily confused, but while irony can also be sarcasm, it is never satire.
Satire is used to point out our flaws, not to pit reader expectations against reality.
Satire is a genre, not a literary device.
Satire often uses irony to great effect, but they are not interchangeable.
Is it like rain on a sunny day?
Alanis Morissette takes a lot of guff for the song “Ironic” and how ironic it really isn’t; however, it’s not that hard to spin most of the situations in the song into some type of irony. For example:
Is it ironic to get a free ride after you’ve already paid? Maybe. Maybe there’s a flyer advertising the free ride if one were to go to the website and enter the coupon code, but our character repeatedly misses multiple opportunities to see said flyer. Readers feel bad as the character counts out a sum of money they really can’t afford, only later to discover that they could have gotten tickets for free. That’s dramatic irony.
The second verse: A man waiting his whole life to take his first flight and then the airplane crashing also makes for good dramatic irony if readers are aware that, for whatever reason, the plane stands no chance of completing the flight. But even if you don’t buy that, his saying “Well, isn’t this nice?” as the plane goes down is textbook verbal irony.
So let’s give Alanis a break. All that’s really missing from her song is context.
Irony in Poetry
When it comes to verbal irony in poetry, we’re mostly talking about contradictions between what the poet says and what they mean, because poetry doesn’t generally use a lot of dialogue. Then again, the second example below is almost nothing but dialogue.
A more appropriate poetic example, perhaps, is Elizabeth Bishop’s “One Art,” in which she claims that loss is easy to deal with, but she doesn’t mean it.
Situational irony is also common in poetry, especially those poems that employ surprise endings like the first example below (though a surprise ending isn’t required). And poets are masters at pointing out how reality so often does not align with our expectations, the perfect setup for situational irony.
Situational irony often juxtaposes ideas, images, metaphors, etc. to create a new understanding. A classic example is Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall,” which uses a complex web of irony around a stone wall between two properties, a simple object that opens up a debate about literal and metaphorical divisions between people and the perceived effectiveness or ineffectiveness of them—a simple idea that isn’t simple at all.
Dramatic irony exists in poetry very similarly to how it’s used in fiction, in that readers have information that the character in the poem doesn’t have so that readers have a front row seat to the mistakes the character makes based on missing or inaccurate information.
Here’s an example of situational irony:
By Edwin Arlington Robinson
Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.
And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
"Good-morning," and he glittered when he walked.
And he was rich—yes, richer than a king—
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.
So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.
The surprise ending reveals the reality of Richard Cory’s situation. While everyone in town thinks he must be very happy, given how impressive and charming and dapper he is, in reality, he’s a horribly depressed person, a reality that defies overwhelming expectations.
This poem also uses situational irony as well as verbal irony:
By Thomas Hardy
"O 'Melia, my dear, this does everything crown!
Who could have supposed I should meet you in Town?
And whence such fair garments, such prosperi-ty?" —
"O didn't you know I'd been ruined?" said she.
— "You left us in tatters, without shoes or socks,
Tired of digging potatoes, and spudding up docks;
And now you've gay bracelets and bright feathers three!" —
"Yes: that's how we dress when we're ruined," said she.
— "At home in the barton you said thee' and thou,'
And thik oon,' and theäs oon,' and t'other'; but now
Your talking quite fits 'ee for high compa-ny!" —
"Some polish is gained with one's ruin," said she.
— "Your hands were like paws then, your face blue and bleak
But now I'm bewitched by your delicate cheek,
And your little gloves fit as on any la-dy!" —
"We never do work when we're ruined," said she.
— "You used to call home-life a hag-ridden dream,
And you'd sigh, and you'd sock; but at present you seem
To know not of megrims or melancho-ly!" —
"True. One's pretty lively when ruined," said she.
— "I wish I had feathers, a fine sweeping gown,
And a delicate face, and could strut about Town!" —
"My dear — a raw country girl, such as you be,
Cannot quite expect that. You ain't ruined," said she.
Here we have the idea that becoming a prostitute, i.e., a “ruined” woman, actually elevates the maid’s status to one higher than the woman she used to work for, an irony within itself. Then we have the character Amelia, the so-called ruined woman, referring to herself as such, when in reality, she means no such thing.
Here’s an amusing example of dramatic irony.
By Shel Silverstein
My dad gave me one dollar bill
'Cause I'm his smartest son,
And I swapped it for two shiny quarters
'Cause two is more then one!
And then I took the quarters
And traded them to Lou
For three dimes-- I guess he didn't know
That three is more than two!
Just then, along came old blind Bates
And just 'cause he can't see
He gave me four nickels for my three dimes,
And four is more than three!
And I took the nickels to Hiram Coombs
Down at the seed-feed store,
And the fool gave me five pennies for them,
And five is more than four!
And I went and showed my dad,
And he got red in the cheeks
And closed his eyes and shook his head--
Too proud of me to speak!
In this story, the reader knows all too well the unfortunately bad logic the narrator is using, but the narrator is clueless, even at the end.
What’s Your Favorite Ironic Poem?
Do you have a poem that you just love for its irony? If so, share it with us in the comments. We’d love to hear about it!
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