The article discusses the place and the role of the antithesis in the structure of the poetic image of the most prominent representatives of the Russian, Czech and Slovak poetry of the romantic period. Based on the analysis of the peculiarities and functions of the contrast, antithesis, paradox and oxymoron in the system of images of V.A. Zhukovsky, K.F. Ryleyev, A.S. Pushkin, M.Yu. Lermontov, Y. Kral, K.H. Macha, the author of the article attempts at revealing the epistemological aspects of the relationship of the lyrical subject to the world (openness of the cognitive process – the demonstration of cognition in the “finished form”) and at showing the specifics of the art model of the world in the works of the poets.