Another poem by Ashbery Paradoxes and Oxymorons, in which he conveys to the reader how they should rethink poetry, by writing ambiguously. Similar to Ice Cream Wars, he starts off with a “topic sentence” of sorts, with a statement of the intention of his poem: “This poem is concerned with language on a very plain level.”(Paradoxes and Oxymorons 1). This lets the reader know what the poem is generally about. Ashbery then questions the reader’s ability to fully understand poetry: This is ironic because those who understand what he’s writing, understand poetry in general. However, those who don’t take the time to read poetry get confused, and don’t understand the poem; acting like an idiot test, to distinguish those who just read poetry and
