Irony_For_Thought

Irony For Thought Irony for Thought What is irony' The Bedford Introduction to Literature defines irony as “a literary device that uses contradictory statements or situations to reveal a reality different that what appears to be true.” In short irony involves a conflict of some sort between two things. In modern literary studies, there are at least five types of irony, but this paper will only concern four types and some select poems that utilize them. The first type of irony and probably most widely used is situational irony. This occurs when there is a difference between what is expected to happen and what actually happens. One of the countless literary works to use this form of irony is a poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson called “Richard Cory”. In it the speaker describes Mr. Cory as a slim, handsome, neatly dressed, educated man who happens to be very rich. He seems to have it all and the speaker is totally charmed by his good fortune. However, the final line of the poem changes all of that. “And Richard Cory, one calm summer night, Went home and put a bullet through his head.” This reveals that contrary to outside appearance, Mr. Cory was not at irony, man, poem, speech, one, literary, universe, type, cory, between, types, takes, readers, nothing, life, known, happens, good, found, writing, war, verbal, utilize, through, things, thing, speaker, something, seems, richard, recognize, poetry, patriotic, occurs, mr, means