The use of irony is the two poems “The History Teacher” by Billy Collins and “Outdistanced” by Larry Rubin punctuates the shared theme that history repeats itself, and those who fail to learn from it, repeat it. In the “The History Teacher” the teacher doesn’t teach his students correctly, he takes the violence out of the history making the ‘Ice Age’ the ‘Chilly Age’ (2-3). This exposes the audience to the fact that the teacher doesn’t value our history, despite him being a history teacher. As the teacher walks ‘past flower beds and white picket fences,’ it is revealed to the audience that he is not exposed it violence, just like his students (18). Despite the teacher protecting his students they still ‘torment the weak and the smart,’ repeating