Since communication continues indefinitely, the resolution of paradoxes is put off into the indefinite future. But in literature, the paradoxes are exposed because the text is bounded. The paradoxes cannot be deferred through the process of an ongoing communicative exchange, but instead become apparent to the reader, merely because the literary text is destined to indefinitely extended contemplation rather than the passing business of communication. The paradoxes of life are painful and frustrating, but literature puts the paradoxes into play, as abused children may make the very themes of abuse into objects of play. Such play neither expresses nor resolves the problems of living a paradoxical existence, but play maintains our sanity and our ability to go forward.
Poetry best shifts our focus toward the physical material of language by making audible rhythm.
This incommensurability is a paradoxical fact about language in general, but poetry draws attention to that fact rather than obscuring it. This is an instance of how literature exposes paradoxes otherwise hidden. A crucial paradox about language is that it must seem natural in order to maintain transparency but is actually arbitrary and conventional. Poets and readers will exploit the built-in attention to sound in poetry to play with the paradox of language. One way is the pretense that language is not arbitrary but natural.