Below is an part of the play ‘Romeo and Juliet” Act I, Scene I, written by William Shakespeare that exemplifies an oxymoron.

“Why, then, O brawling love! O loving hate!

O anything, of nothing first create!

O heavy lightness! Serious vanity!

Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms!

Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!

Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!

This love feel I, that feel no love in this.

Dost thou not laugh?”

There are several examples of oxymorons in place when Romeo confronts the love of, in his eyes, a perfect women. An intense emotional effect is made to show his mental conflict by the use o pairs of words that mean almost the opposite of each other, such as “hating love”, “heavy lightness”, “bright smoke”, “cold fire”, and “sick health”.

OxyMoron