oxymoron


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oxymoron

Rhetoric an epigrammatic effect, by which contradictory terms are used in conjunction

Oxymoron

 

a stylistic device combining contradictory words to form a new semantic entity, for example, “sorrowful joy” (S. A. Esenin). The oxymoron makes literary language more meaningful and intensifies its emotional impact by disclosing the unity of opposites and of life’s seeming contradictions [examples of oxymoron in italics]:

See how she’s rejoiced in sorrow,

So elegantly bared.

A. AKHMATOVA

We love everything—the ardor of cold numbers,

And the gift of divine visions.

A. BLOK

The oxymoron can be a type of literary paradox.

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