Irony and Sarcasm in the Poetry of Ibrahim Touqan

Irony is a tool that implicitly treats social realities by drawing upon wit. Such wit is backed up with silent thought and contemplation that would quietly yet effectively shriek man out of his slumber of oblivion. Thus, irony is a means to an end and a weapon aimed at certain individuals or groups of people. Among the features of Ibrahim Touqan’s poetry is the sincere and passionate obsession of the poet with patriotic concerns as a Palestinian. Since Touqan was not practically capable of reforming and improving the harsh realities of Palestinian existence, he resorted to the weapons of irony and sarcasm to expose and alert his fellow countrymen of the treachery and deceit that has compromised his motherland. The piercing impression of his style is the outcome of his implementation of the imperative and interrogative, the dialectical, the paradoxical, queer realism, coinage, dislocated conclusions, and admonishing address, among others. This article employs a descriptive-analytical approach to the subject of irony and sarcasm and analyzes its origin and practice in Ibrahim Touqan’s poetry.