Tartary- Walter De La Mare

And in the evening lamps would shine,

Yellow as honey, red as wine,
Her bird-delighting, citron trees
In every purple vale!
In the above lines, the poet uses the simile explicitly way. Yellow is
compared to honey and red is to wine. The poet uses hyperbole for
exaggeration, and for glorifying his dream. “The evening lamp would
shine, yellow as honey red as wine.” Here, the poet exaggerates the
colors of light. The implicit comparison draws through metaphor as ‘
Daffodils – W. W. Worth

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,…
And dances with the daffodils.

In the first line, ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’ The poet compares himself to
a cloud by using a simile. Alliteration is used in ‘Beside the lake, beneath the
trees, And dances with the daffodils’. The sounds of ‘b’ and ‘d’ are in
repetition. The poet has personified the daffodils as if the flowers can dance.
Ode to a Nightingale – John Keats
My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,..
O for a beaker full of the warm South,
Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,….
Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes,
Or new Love pine at them beyond to-morrow…
White hawthorn, and the pastoral eglantine;
Fast fading violets cover’d up in leaves;…
Forlorn! the very word is like a bell
To toll me back from thee to my sole self!

Ode to a Nightingale is an extraordinary poem that relates life’s suffering to the briefness of
bird’s song. Here simile is used to compare abandonment or loneliness to a bell. In the line, “for
a beaker full of the warm south”. The poet has used a metaphor to compare liquid with south
country weather. In the verse, “where beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes” beauty is
personified. The poet has used the apostrophe in “Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird”.
Here, he is directly addressing the bird.
Patriot into traitor – Robert Browning

It was roses, roses, all the way,

With myrtle mixed in my path like mad:
The house-roofs seemed to heave and sway,
The church-spires flames, such flags they had,
A year ago on this very day…
There’s nobody on the house-tops now–
Just a palsied few at the windows set

In this poem, the poet presents how people change their mindsets using irony. For
example, the fame and downfall of a leader. Political upheavals go parallel to ironic
situations in the poem. In verse, “The house roofs seemed to heave and sway” the
houses are personified and referred to the mob. The poem also begins with the image of
the past, where a patriot is being welcomed warmly. The use of roses shows love,
heaving, and swaying of rooftops is juxtaposed with the image of empty roofs.
Many common phrases and situations reflect irony. Irony often stems from an unanticipated response
(verbal irony) or an unexpected outcome (situational irony). Here are some common examples of
verbal and situational irony:
Verbal Irony

Telling a quiet group, “don’t speak all at once”

Coming home to a big mess and saying, “it’s great to be back”
Telling a rude customer to “have a nice day”
Walking into an empty theater and asking, “it’s too crowded”
Stating during a thunderstorm, “beautiful weather we’re having”
An authority figure stepping into the room saying, “don’t bother to stand or anything”
A comedian telling an unresponsive audience, “you all are a great crowd”
Describing someone who says foolish things as a “genius”
Delivering bad news by saying, “the good news is”
Entering a child’s messy room and saying “nice place you have here”
Situational Irony

A fire station that burns down

Winner of a spelling bee failing a spelling test
A t-shirt with a “Buy American” logo that is made in China
Marriage counselor divorcing the third wife
Sending a Christmas card to someone who is Jewish
Leaving a car wash at the beginning of a downpour
A dentist needing a root canal
Going on a blind date with someone who is visually impaired
A police station being burglarized
Purchasing a roll of stamps a day before the price to send a letter
increases