“irony”
by louis untermeyer

why are the things that have no death
the ones with neither sight nor breath!
eternity is thrust upon
a bit of earth, a senseless stone.
a grain of dust, a casual clod
receives the greatest gift of god.
a pebble in the roadway lies—
it never dies.

the grass our fathers cut away
is growing on their graves today;
the tiniest brooks that scarcely flow
eternally will come and go.
there is no kind of death to kill
the sands that lie so meek and still. .
but man is great and strong and wise—
and so he dies.

source: untermeyer, louis. “irony.” the new poetry: an anthology of the twentieth century. eds. harriet monroe and alice corbin henderson. new york: macmillan, 1936. poetry foundation. web. 6 july 2011.

identify the key details that contribute to the irony in the poem.

The irony in Louis Untermeyer's poem is given by the fact that those things that have no awareness of themselves, like pebbles and dust or sand and streams, live forever. Because that which is not alive cannot die.

On the contrary, man, who is strong and intelligente, who is aware of himself and all the things around him and wants to live forever, eventually dies.

sthe miracle worker  ▾search

home  >   study guides  >   the miracle worker

the miracle worker themeswilliam gibson

themes and meanings

(comprehensive guide to drama)

print  print  document  pdf  list  cite  link  link

there are two central themes in  the miracle worker: that the human spirit can triumph over even the most daunting of disabilities and that a dedicated teacher can transform the lives of those with whom he or she comes into contact. these inspirational themes have long been personified in the widely known true-life relationship between helen keller and annie sullivan, but  the miracle worker  also dramatizes collateral issues that extend beyond the particular case. underlying helen’s process of learning basic principles of what annie terms “obedience” (decorum, etiquette, and hygiene), there are more universal lessons of self-governance—the inculcation of self-restraint instead of willfulness, the development of self-discipline instead of self-indulgence. only when these lessons have been mastered can helen begin to acquire language—which, annie says, “is to the mind more than light is to the eye.”

the sentence that best describes the tone of the passage from the radio broadcast compared to the passage from the book is b. the radio broadcast has a more surprised tone.

consider the text evidence: in the passage from the book, the description is more matter-of-fact. it is simply describing the things resembling little grey snakes, but there is no urgency in the description. on the other hand, in the passage from the radio broadcast, there is definetely urgency (you can tell from the expression used, "good heavens", which clearly indicates surprise.)