Irony is a contrast between expectation and reality, or between what is said and what is meant. In poetry, irony may appear as verbal irony, where a speaker means something different from the literal words, or as situational irony, where events turn out in an unexpected or sharply opposite way. Poets use irony to create wit, tension, criticism, or a more layered meaning.
Example
The careful banker counts his gold,
then finds his pockets all are old
and empty as the paper says
he used to buy the house and bread.
"So rich," he laughs, and locks the door,
while rain comes through the cracked-up floor.
Related Definitions
[n] incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs; "the irony of Ireland's copying the nation she most hated"
[n] witty language used to convey insults or scorn; "he used sarcasm to upset his opponent"; "irony is wasted on the stupid"
[n] a trope that involves incongruity between what is expected and what occurs
Related Terms
agile wit, ambiguity, ambiguousness, ambivalence, amphibology, antinomy, Atticism, biformity, bifurcation, black humor, burlesque, caricature, causticity, comedy, complexity of meaning, conjugation, cynicism, dichotomy, double entendre, double meaning, do