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Saturday, September 11, 2021

Definition and Examples of Oxymoron – Literary Terms

Tags: oxymoron definition, oxymoron examples, what is an oxymoron, oxymoron meaning, oxymoron synonym, oxymoron vs paradox, oxymoron in romeo and juliet



Definition and Examples of Oxymoron  – Literary Terms

Oxymoron:

A figure of speech in which two contradictory words or phrases are combined in a single expression, giving the effect of a condensed PARADOX: "wise fool," "living death," "cruel kindness," "eloquent silence." Still found in modern POETRY, the oxymoron was the primary rhetorical expression of the BAROQUE era, especially in METAPHYSICAL POETRY. Romeo uses a series of oxymora to describe his "loving hate" in these lines from William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet:

O heavy lightness! serious vanity!

Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms!

Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!

These lines describe the infant Jesus in Richard Crashaw's poem “An Hymn of the Nativity":

Welcome, all wonders in one sight!

Eternity shut in a span,

Summer in winter, day in night,

Heaven in earth, and God in man!

Singular: Oxymoron.

Plural: Oxymora.

See also:

PARADOX.

Tags: oxymoron definition, oxymoron examples, what is an oxymoron, oxymoron meaning, oxymoron synonym, oxymoron vs paradox, oxymoron in romeo and juliet

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