Dramatic irony is a poetic device that has greatly enhanced the meaning and impact of the wars poems of the 18th and 19th century. It is one of the poet’s most useful tools in nourishing the interest of its readers, because it provides a contrast between an instant situation and a future outcome. In “War Is Kind”, Crane Illustrates a man, possibly a general, informing a range of family members of the passing of their kin. He informs the maiden of her lover’s “thirst for fight” (7) and how the “unexplained glory flies above” (9) a battle-god’s kingdom “where a thousand corpses lie” (11). He attempts to comfort a babe, whose father “tumbled in the yellow trenches” and “Raged at his breast, gulped and died” (13-14), all in honor of “the virtue of slaughter” (20). He consoles the grieve-stricken mother “whose heart hung humble as a button” (23). All of the speaker’s statements contradict each other in order for Crane to show that, despite the title of the poem and the constant refrains of war being kind, it truly is heartless and
Dramatic irony is a poetic device that has greatly enhanced the meaning and impact of the wars poems of the 18th and 19th century. It is one of the poet’s most useful tools in nourishing the interest of its readers, because it provides a contrast between an instant situation and a future outcome. In “War Is Kind”, Crane Illustrates a man, possibly a general, informing a range of family members of the passing of their kin. He informs the maiden of her lover’s “thirst for fight” (7) and how the “unexplained glory flies above” (9) a battle-god’s kingdom “where a thousand corpses lie” (11). He attempts to comfort a babe, whose father “tumbled in the yellow trenches” and “Raged at his breast, gulped and died” (13-14), all in honor of “the virtue of slaughter” (20). He consoles the grieve-stricken mother “whose heart hung humble as a button” (23). All of the speaker’s statements contradict each other in order for Crane to show that, despite the title of the poem and the constant refrains of war being kind, it truly is heartless and