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Q&A Is this an oxymoron, and what would be the purpose of making seemingly illogical statements in writing? [closed]

Here's a piece of writing I came up with: The rolling billows rocked the mighty galleon cradling it madly as if it were but a mere child. There are many seeming contradictions: When we thin...

1 answer  ·  posted 5y ago by puffofsmoke‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T10:41:26Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/41580
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar puffofsmoke‭ · 2019-12-08T10:41:26Z (over 4 years ago)
Here's a piece of writing I came up with:

> The rolling billows rocked the mighty galleon  
> cradling it madly as if it were but a mere child.

There are many seeming contradictions: When we think "billows rocked" we think of a powerful motion, "cradling" goes against that, and then "madly" goes against cradling and finally "as if it were but a mere child" goes completely against the idea of a powerful "rolling billow"?

Is this just really bad style? It seems to have a poetic effect. Is there a way to leverage such inconsistencies to deliberately create this effect? And can it be used in novels, or only in poetry?

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-01-24T20:53:01Z (over 5 years ago)
Original score: 2