Why oxymoron effective

Score on SAT Reading. Score on SAT Writing. What ACT target score should you be aiming for? How to Get a Perfect 4. How to Write an Amazing College Essay. A Comprehensive Guide. Choose Your Test. What Is an Oxymoron? Note: All bold emphasis in the following quotations is my own. Oxymoron Example 1 Good night, good night!

Parting is such sweet sorrow That I shall say good night till it be morrow. I have passed with a nod of the head Or polite meaningless words, Or have lingered awhile and said Polite meaningless words, And thought before I had done Of a mocking tale or a gibe To please a companion Around the fire at the club, Being certain that they and I But lived where motley is worn: All changed, changed utterly: A terrible beauty is born.

And peradventure had he seen her first She might have made this and that other world Another world for the sick man; but now The shackles of an old love straitened him, His honour rooted in dishonour stood, And faith unfaithful kept him falsely true. Hannah Muniz. About the Author. Search the Blog Search. Find Out How. This is especially achieved if the word pairing reveals intensity or a great difference in quality. For example, if a character receives a painful smile, this creates a significant dramatic effect.

Smiles are rarely associated with pain. Therefore, the reader is left in some suspense to wonder what events or feelings would result in such a response received by the character. Too many uses of oxymoron can be either distracting or tedious for the reader. Their dramatic effect is much more powerful with sparing use.

Oxymoron can be an excellent tool in creating humor for a reader. For example, if a character is described as a man child , this oxymoron calls up a humorous image of a child that looks like a man or vice-versa. It is also comedic in terms of behavior, both in terms of a man acting like a child or a child behaving like a man. Oxymoron can also serve as a means of elevated language when used to express a sense of irony. For example, oxymoron phrases such as marital bliss, military intelligence, and business ethics, depending on how they are used as figures of speech, can be effective literary devices to indicate irony.

These word pairings are not inherently opposite, but their individual concepts can seem contradictory when combined. Oxymoron is an effective literary device. Here are some examples of oxymoron phrases in well-known literary works, along with how they add to interpretation:.

Good night, good night! You'll find common figures of speech, plus references to works of classic and pop culture.

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Richard Nordquist is professor emeritus of rhetoric and English at Georgia Southern University and the author of several university-level grammar and composition textbooks.