The use of verbal irony in Stephen Crane's "War is Kind" makes Crane's attitude toward war very clear. Stanzas one, three, and five present a maiden, a child, and a mother, respectively, who have all lost someone close to them through war. The descriptions of the losses are gut-wrenching. For example, in stanza one, Crane writes:

Do not weep, maiden, for war is kind.
Because your lover threw wild hands toward the sky
And the affrighted steed ran on alone,
Do not weep.
War is kind.

The image of the maiden's lover throwing "wild hands" upward while flailing helplessly and falling from his "affrighted steed" that "ran on alone" shatters the idea of glorious war and valiant death. While dying, the lover did not charge ahead and boldly sacrifice himself to achieve a final glory; the steed did not return to pick up its brave master. Instead, we are presented with the reality of war, followed by the very ironic demand that the maiden "not weep" because "war is kind." This is especially ironic because of the detailed description of the lover's death.

Stanza three presents a similar pattern, focusing on a small child who has lost a father. However, there is no mention of the father's brave final moments. Instead the child is told "your father tumbled in the yellow trenches, / Raged at his breast, gulped and died." He clearly died due to the effects of inhaling mustard gas. Once again, Crane ends the stanza with the ironic "do not weep. / War is kind."

While Crane presents what appear to be more typical, "glorious" images of war in stanzas two and four, these stanzas also end with images of death, suffering, and desolation. Crane employs verbal irony in these instances as well, through lines such as "Great is the battle-god, great, and his kingdom— / A field where a thousand corpses lie" and "Make plain . . . the excellence of killing/ And a field where a thousand corpses lie." Clearly, there is nothing great or excellent about a field littered with corpses.

In this poem, Crane does not glorify war. His poem makes it clear that war is cruel and unattractive.