Hello Friends —
So there’s this poet William Shakespeare (you might’ve heard of him — it’s his birthday today) who favored a literary technique called oxymoron for its ability to convey paradoxes in the human condition. “Fearful bravery” is an example of an oxymoron. A paradox it illustrates is that without fear, there is no bravery — for in order to be brave, we must have something worth fearing to be brave in the face of or overcome.
Enjoy.
Ellen
CAESAR:
Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear;
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.—