Irony illustrates a situation, or a use of language, involving some kind of discrepancy. The result of an action or situation is the reverse of what is expected.

Thus the IRONY poem often involves laughable situation, that leaves the reader smirking with knowing.


Example 1 by Samuel Taylor Coleridge:

excerpt from Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.
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Example 2 by Jacquii Cooke:

excerpt from A Lesson In Opposites

the tedium of love-throes -
I wander…
Oh, I wonder why
it (the reminiscence) plagues me so.

Though I know what is
true, as well as what is not,
irony is demeaning in its’ omnipotence.