Poetic Terms Dictionary
Genre

Satire

From Latin satura: a mixed dish. A major genre from Horace and Juvenal onward. English satire flourished in the Restoration and 18th century as a vehicle for political and moral critique.

Definition

The use of irony, wit, exaggeration, and mockery to expose and criticise human vices, follies, and social abuses.

Example

Pope's The Dunciad (1728–43); Dryden's 'Mac Flecknoe'; Swift's verse satires; Byron's Don Juan.

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