Stanisław Barańczak’s poems share one common feature, that is their exquisitely well-thought and refined construction. The lyrical subject of Barańczak’s poetry is shaped by the application of ironic devices. It is irony that allows to create a "protective zone" by which the poet encircles the most complicated issues connected with the understanding of people (in a poetic, but also in a philosophical sense). On the basis of selected examples, the article presents some communicative aspects of the poetic discourse of irony. A poet aware of his own technique (he was also a literary researcher), Barańczak was seeking for a modern and up-to-date research formula in which the play with irony and vivid functionalism of the subject within the scope of the poem are meant to be the major means of conveying poetic sense.