Paradox (literature)
Paradox, however, is essential to the structure and being of the poem. In "The Well Wrought Urn" Brooks shows that paradox was so essential to poetic meaning that paradox was almost identical to poetry. According to literary theorist Leroy Searle, Brooks' use of paradox emphasized the indeterminate lines between form and content. "The form of the poem uniquely embodies its meaning," and the language of the poem "affects the reconciliation of opposites or contraries." While irony functions within the poem, paradox often refers to the meaning and structure of the poem and is thus inclusive of irony. This existence of opposites or contraries and the reconciliation thereof is poetry and the meaning of the poem.
Yablo's paradox
Consider the following infinite set of sentences:Assume there is an "n" such that "S" is true. Then "S" is not true, so there is some "k" > "n" + 1 such that "S" is true. But "S" is not true because "S" is true and "k" > "n". Assuming "S" to be true implies a contradiction: some later "S" is both true and not true. So our assumption is absurd and we must conclude that for each "i", the sentence "S" is not true. But if each "S" is not true, then given that each attributes untruth to later sentences, they are all true. So we have the paradox that each sentence in Yablo's list is true and not true.