poetic device: Paradox Poems
Paradox poems are poems that contain statements that contradict themselves. For example, the poem “Antigonish” by Hugh Mearnes begins with the lines “Yesterday, upon the stair / I met a man who wasn’t there.”
In poetry, a paradox doesn’t have to include the entire poem. It can be as little as a single line, or a phrase such as “less is more” or “the student was the teacher.”
However, when entire poems are full of contradictory statements, they are a type of nonsense poem. As a child, I fell in love with nonsense poems, but especially paradox poems that I learned from my father, like “The Dying Fisherman’s Song.” When I grew up and began writing poetry of my own, I loved creating new paradoxes.
Each of these poems contradict themselves and strange and funny ways.
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