How does John Ashbery use imagery in Paradoxes and Oxymorons?

"Paradoxes and Oxymorons" illustrates the idea that the world is never quite what it seems to be; appearances are deceptive. Greek philosopher Plato addresses this idea in The Allegory of the Cave, claiming that human beings live in the shadows of the real world. "Paradoxes and Oxymorons," a poem included in a collection titled Shadow Train, is in itself obscure and elusive in nature. One of the central paradoxes of the poem is its relationship to reality. After establishing that the poem is "concerned with language on a very plain level," the speaker complicates that level, ultimately suggesting, in the third stanza, that the poem, like reality itself, is "a dreamed role pattern." The poem, like reality, is a form of play "without proof." This last phrase calls attention to the idea that perception itself is unreliable. What happens in reality is like what happens in this poem: Both are unpredictable; both contain random events.