Abstract
This paper examines the poetry and poetics of Donne in order to elucidate the ways in which he balances the use of paradox and gives its reconciled resolution. The model proposed to analyze paradox in this study is an eclectic model depends mainly on Grice's model of cooperative principle and implicarure to analyse the extent to which Grice's conversational maxims of quantity, quality, relevance, and manner are flouted by Donne in his sonnets. In addition to that Searle's model of speech acts will be examined since each of these paradoxes has a certain illocutionary force in their specific context. Hence, the context is an important factor to figure out the poet's main intention.
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