Paradoxes and Oxymorons | Stanza 1 Summary
Paradoxes and oxymorons are rhetorical figures, and by naming the poem after them Ashbery is setting up readers’ expectations to look for these figures. The first line is ironic, whether intentionally or not is unimportant. Any poem with the title “Paradoxes and Oxymorons” cannot be “concerned with language on a very plain level,” as these figures of speech are themselves often difficult to understand. Ashbery’s poems frequently contain a high degree of self-reflexivity, and this poem is no different. A poem is self-reflexive when it is its own subject, when it describes and...
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