How does Stephen Crane use situational irony to heighten the impact of his poem "War is Kind"?

Verbal irony is when a word is used to mean the exact
opposite of its normal meaning.  When I was in college, I had a very tall friend who was
known by the nickname "Tiny"; that is an example of verbal irony.

Stephen Crane uses verbal irony in his poem "War is Kind."
 "War is Kind" is not only the title of the poem; it is also its refrain, as it is
repeated five times.  The verbal irony is that the poem is about the cruelty and
brutality of war, not about its kindness.

The poem
describes three people who have lost loved ones to war: a "maiden," a "babe" and a
mother.  The poem includes some rather gruesome descriptions of war.  For example, the
poem mentions "A field where a thousand corpses lie"; he also describes a soldier who
"tumbled in the yellow trenches, / Raged at his breast, gulped and
died."

The poet even mocks the soldiers for being "Little
souls who thirst for fight," who are "born to drill and
die."

Yet the refrain of "War is kind" is repeated again
and again.  It is clear that the poet means just the opposite--that war is brutal,
senseless and gruesome.