Day 28 Irony

Cicero referred to irony as “saying one thing and meaning another.” Irony comes in many forms.

• Verbal irony is a disparity of expression and intention: when a speaker says one thing but means another, or when a literal meaning is contrary to its intended effect. Verbal irony is a trope in which a speaker makes a statement in which its actual meaning differs sharply from the meaning that the words ostensibly express. Often this sort of irony is plainly sarcastic in the eyes of the reader, but the characters listening in the story may not realize the speaker's sarcasm as quickly as the readers do.
• Dramatic irony is a disparity of expression and awareness: when words and actions possess a significance that the listener or audience understands, but the speaker or actor does not. Dramatic irony (also called tragic)involves a situation in a narrative in which the reader knows something about present or future circumstances that the character does not know. In that situation, the character acts in a way we recognize to be grossly inappropriate to the actual circumstances, or the character expects the opposite of what the reader knows that fate holds in store, or the character anticipates a particular outcome that unfolds itself in an unintentional way. Probably the most famous example of dramatic irony is the situation facing Oedipus in the play Oedipus Rex.
• Situational irony is the disparity of intention and result: when the result of an action is contrary to the desired or expected effect. Situational irony (also called cosmic irony) is a trope in which accidental events occur that seem oddly appropriate, such as the poetic justice of a pickpocket getting his own pocket picked. However, both the victim and the audience are simultaneously aware of the situation in situational irony.

(Notes from Dr. Kip Wheeler and Wikipedia.)

S 5 10 15 20 25	Who Burns for the Perfection of Paper by Martín Espada At sixteen, I worked after high school hours at a printing plant that manufactured legal pads: Yellow paper stacked seven feet high and leaning as I slipped cardboard between the pages, then brushed red glue up and down the stack. No gloves: fingertips required for the perfection of paper, smoothing the exact rectangle. Sluggish by 9 PM, the hands would slide along suddenly sharp paper, and gather slits thinner than the crevices of the skin, hidden. The glue would sting, hands oozing till both palms burned at the punch clock. Ten years later, in law school, I knew that every legal pad was glued with the sting of hidden cuts, that every open law book was a pair of hands upturned and burning.
	Questions for Discussion: This poem relies on repeated sounds -- as in the title. The most prominent use of repeated sounds is in lines 14-17, where Espada uses “s”-words extensively. What ideas are being linked here? Color often holds important connotative value. For example, in this poem, the glue is red, a powerfully connotative color. What connotations surround red and why does it hold such a prominent place in the poem? Hold your hands upturned and reread the last stanza of the poem. How does this image of hands burning enrich the poem? Espada has said that this is a poem about having one foot in each of two worlds. It’s also about never taking anyone’s labor for granted. Since Espada eventually became a legal-services lawyer in Chelsea, Massachusetts, there are several levels of irony present when he writes about working as a teenager in a plant that made legal pads. Explore the verbal, dramatic, and situational ironies present in this poem. Consider that the point he is making about law itself may be the greatest irony of all.

Your Turn: Look for irony in your own life. You can write about a real-life event, a piece of literature or film, but explore at least one personal ironic reference.

Listen to Espada read this poem.