The Great Nations of Europe

What examples of the song are ironic? How can you tell?

-“The Great Nations of Europe” has a mismatch between what is said and versus what is meant, the author clearly states how great the nations of Europe are yet he is satirically calling great while meaning the opposite.

  

-The chorus of the whole song which goes: hide your wives and daughter; hide the groceries too. Upon there being a tension between what is said versus what is meant, there is a mocking tone to the whole sentence. The author is stating in tribal words, what would really happen. Giving us discordance between what we know, living five hundred years later, and from the point of view this song was written or what the character knows.

-“The great nations of Europe were quite holy in their way.” The author is expressing a mismatch between two settings. First of all between what is said and what is meant, because he is not truly talking about the holiness of the nations instead the contrary. On the other hand, there is a tension between expectations versus reality. It would be obvious for later generations that the great nations of Europe would not be that holy and beneficial.

What examples are not ironic? How can you tell?

-Most of the song is not ironical; it might be taken so because of the tone the author uses and the word choice that makes everything seem exaggerated. The following are example fragments, that might at first glance be perceived as ironical, yet are just the truth stated in a childish way:

-“They'd conquered what was behind them and now they wanted more,
so they looked to the mighty ocean and took to the Western sea.”

-“Some bones hidden in a canyon some paintings in a cave
they're no use tryin to save them, there's nothin left to save.”