This essay will offer a more antique example of what many authors demonstrate in Structure & Surprise— that, although critical and pedagogical attention to structures rather than forms in poetry, and to turns especially, may be relatively recent, the practice of poetic turns is ubiquitous, so much so as to be considered an essential part of the art. Unsurprising, then, to discover that poets have used turns in their writing and have benefited from their effects for a very long time. Arguably no turn is more stark and noticeable than the ironic turn, when an outlook or tone that has been carefully developed and, for the moment, sounds whole-hearted— only to be suddenly undercut, as the poem’s initial, apparent aim is reversed or abandoned.…