Home › Glossary › Letter M

Metaphorical paradox

Device
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

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 figurative expression that contains an apparent contradiction used to enrich meaning

Detailed Definition
A Metaphorical paradox is a figurative expression that yokes seemingly contradictory concepts into a single image or statement to reveal a deeper, often counterintuitive truth—such as “deafening silence” or John Donne’s “batter my heart, three-person’d God”—leveraging cognitive tension to provoke insight, emotional complexity, or spiritual revelation; central to metaphysical poetry and modernist aesthetics, this device challenges literal logic to access transcendent or psychological realities, demonstrating how poetry thrives on ambiguity and the reconciliation of opposites to express experiences beyond ordinary language.
Example
Example in poetry:
John Donne’s “Batter my heart” presents metaphorical paradox: “imprison me, for I / Except you enthrall me, never shall be free”; Emily Dickinson’s “Much Madness is divinest Sense” uses metaphorical paradox to invert logic; Sylvia Plath’s “Lady Lazarus” presents paradox: “Dying / Is an art, like everything else”; Contemporary poet Ocean Vuong’s “Aubade with Burning City” uses paradox: disco song during war; Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” presents paradox of choice creating destiny; W.H. Auden’s “In Memory of W.B. Yeats” offers paradox: “poetry makes nothing happen” yet “it survives.”
Additional Notes
Metaphorical paradox joins seemingly contradictory ideas to reveal deeper truth (e.g., “living death”). Related to symbolic antinomy. Avoid mere cleverness—strong paradoxes unsettle then clarify, expanding conceptual possibility.
Also Known As
Paradoxical figure Figurative paradox Symbolic contradiction Poetic opposition impossible comparison
Skip to main content