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Figurative paradox

Device
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A paradox conveyed through contradictory imagery (e.g., “a deafening silence”) rather than logical contradiction, evoking cognitive dissonance.

Detailed Definition
Figurative paradox is a rhetorical device in poetry where seemingly contradictory statements reveal a deeper, often counterintuitive truth through metaphor or symbolic language—e.g., “I must be cruel only to be kind”—challenging logical expectations to evoke emotional complexity, philosophical insight, or spiritual revelation.
Example
Example in poetry:
John Donne’s “Batter my heart”: “Take me to you, imprison me, for I / Except you enthrall me, never shall be free”—paradox of freedom through bondage; Emily Dickinson’s “Much Madness is divinest Sense”—paradox of sanity in madness; W.B. Yeats’s “The Second Coming”: “The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity”—moral paradox; Sylvia Plath’s “Dying / Is an art”—paradox of death as creation; Ocean Vuong’s “The most beautiful part of your body is where it’s headed”—paradox of beauty in futurity; contemporary poets use paradox to explore identity and trauma.
Additional Notes
Paradox using figurative rather than literal contradiction. "Cruel kindness," "deafening silence." Related: oxymoron, paradox types. Study: difference between logical and figurative paradox.
Also Known As
Metaphorical paradox Figurative contradiction Symbolic antinomy Imaginative oxymoron
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