literary terms - ap literature

alliteration

the repetition of identical or similar consonant sounds, normally at the beginnings of words. (ex.: Gnus never know pneumonia is an example of alliteration since, despite the spellings, all four words begin with the "n" sound)

allusion

a reference in a work of literature to something outside the work, especially to a well-known historical or literary event, person, or work.

antithesis

a figure of speech characterized by strongly contrasting words, clauses, sentences or ideas, as in: Man proposes; God disposes. Antithesis is a balancing of one term against another for emphasis or stylistic effectiveness

apostrophe

a figure of speech in which someone (usually, but not always absent), some abstract quality, or a nonexistent personage is directly addressed as though present.

assonance

the repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds. A land laid waste with all its young men slain repeats the same "a" sound in "laid," "waste," and "slain."

cacophony

a harsh, unpleasant combination of sounds or tones. It may be an unconscious flaw in the poet's music, resulting in harshness of sound or difficulty of articulation, or it may be used consciously for effect, as Browning and Eliot often use it. See, for example, the following line from Browning's "Rabbi Ben Ezra": Irks care the crop-full bird? Frets doubt the maw-crammed beast?

caesura

a pause, usually near the middle of a line of verse, usually indicated by the sense of the line, and often greater than the normal pause. For example, one would naturally pause after "human" in the following line from Alexander Pope: To err is human, to forgive divine.

conceit

an ingenious and fanciful notion or conception, usually expressed through an elaborate analogy, and pointing to a striking parallel between two seemingly dissimilar things. A conceit may be a brief metaphor, but it also may form the framework of an entire poem. A famous example of a conceit occurs in John Donne's poem "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning," in which he compares his soul and his wife's to legs of a mathematical compass.

consonance

the repetition of similar consonant sounds in a group of words. The term usually refers to words in which the ending consonants are the same but the vowels that precede them are different. Consonance is found in the following pairs of words: "add" and "read," "bill and ball," and "born" and "burn."

couplet

a two-line stanza, usually with end-rhymes the same.

diction

the use of words in a literary work. Diction may be described as formal (the level of usage common in serious books and formal discourse), informal (the level of usage found in the relaxed but polite conversation of cultivated people), colloquial (the everyday usage of a group, possibly including terms and constructions accepted in that group but not universally acceptable), or slang (a group of newly coined words which are not acceptable for formal usage as yet).

end stopped line

a line with a pause at the end. Lines that end with a period, a comma, a colon, a semicolon, an exclamation point, or a question mark are end-stopped lines. (True ease in writing comes from Art, not Chance, As those move easiest who have learn'd to dance.)

enjambment

the continuation of the sense and grammatical construction from one line of poetry to the next. Milton's Paradise Lost is notable for its use of enjambment, as seen in the following lines: ( . . . .Or if Sion hill Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flow'd Fast by the oracle of God, . . . .)

extended metaphor

an implied analogy, or comparison, which is carried throughout a stanza or an entire poem. In "The Bait," John Donne compares a beautiful woman to fish bait and men to fish who want to be caught by the woman. Since he carries these comparisons all the way through the poem, these are considered "extended metaphors."

euphony

a style in which combinations of words pleasant to the ear predominate. Its opposite is cacophony. The following lines from John Keats' " Endymion" are euphonious: (A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: Its loveliness increases; it will never Pass into nothingness; but still will keep A bower quiet for us, and a sleep Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.)

eye rhyme

rhyme that appears correct from spelling, but is half-rhyme or slant rhyme from the pronunciation. Examples include "watch" and "match," and "love" and "move."

figurative language

writing that uses figures of speech (as opposed to literal language or that which is actual or specifically denoted) such as metaphor, irony, and simile. Figurative language uses words to mean something other than their literal meaning. "The black bat night has flown" is figurative, with the metaphor comparing night and bat. "Night is over" says the same thing without figurative language.

free verse

poetry which is not written in a traditional meter but is still rhythmical. The poetry of Walt Whitman is perhaps the best-known example of free verse.

hyperbole

a deliberate, extravagant, and often outrageous exaggeration. It may be used for either serious or comic effect. Macbeth is using hyperbole in the following lines: . . . .No; this my hand will rather The multitudinous seas incarnadine, Making the green one red.

imagery

the images of a literary work; the sensory details of a work; the figurative language of a work. Imagery has several definitions, but the two that are paramount are the visual auditory, or tactile images evoked by the words of a literary work or the images that figurative language evokes. When an AP question asks you to discuss imagery, you should look especially carefully at the sensory details and the metaphors and similes of a passage. Some diction is also imagery, but not all diction evokes sensory responses.

irony

the contrast between actual meaning and the suggestion of another meaning. Verbal irony is a figure of speech in which the actual intent is expressed in words which carry the opposite meaning. Irony is likely to be confused with sarcasm, but it differs from sarcasm in that it is usually lighter, less harsh in its wording though in effect probably more cutting because of its indirectness. The ability to recognize irony is one of the surer tests of intelligence and sophistication. Among the devices by which irony is achieved are hyperbole and understatement.

internal rhyme

rhyme that occurs within a line, rather than at the end. The following lines contain internal rhyme: Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore' While I nodded, nearly napping. . suddenly there came a tapping . . . .

lyric poem

any short poem that presents a single speaker who expresses thoughts and feelings. Love lyrics are common, but lyric poems have also been written on subjects as different as religion and reading. Sonnets and odes are lyric poems.

metaphor

a figurative use of language in which a comparison is expressed without the use of a comparative term like "as," "like," or "than." A simile would say, "night is like a black bat"; a metaphor would say, "the black bat night."

meter

the repetition of a regular rhythmic unit in a line of poetry. The meter of a poem emphasizes the musical quality of the language and often relates directly to the subject matter of the poem. Each unit of meter is known as a foot.

metonymy

a figure of speech which is characterized by the substitution of a term naming an object closely associated with the word in mind for the word itself. In this way we commonly speak of the king as the "crown," an object closely associated with kingship.

narrative poem

a non-dramatic poem which tells a story or presents a narrative, whether simple or complex, long or short. Epics and ballads are examples of narrative poems.

octave

an eight-line stanza. Most commonly, octave refers to the first division of an Italian sonnet.

onomatopoeia

the use of words whose sound suggests their meaning. Examples are "buzz," "hiss," or "honk."

oxymoron

a form of paradox that combines a pair of contrary terms into a single expression. This combination usually serves the purpose of shocking the reader into awareness. Examples include "wise fool," "sad joy," and "eloquent silence."

paradox

a situation or action or feeling that appears to be contradictory but on inspection turns out to be true or at least to make sense. The following lines from one of John Donne's Holy Sonnets include paradoxes: Take me to you, imprison me, for I Except you enthrall me, never shall be free, Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

parallelism

a similar grammatical structure within a line or lines of poetry. Parallelism is characteristic of Asian poetry, being notably present in the Psalms, and it seems to be the controlling principle of the poetry of Walt Whitman, as in the following lines: . . . .Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them. Till the bridge you will need be form'd, till the ductile anchor hold, Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.

paraphrase

a restatement of an ideas in such a way as to retain the meaning while changing the diction and form. A paraphrase is often an amplification of the original for the purpose of clarity.

personification

a kind of metaphor that gives inanimate objects or abstract ideas human characteristics.

poetic foot

a group of syllables in verse usually consisting of one accented syllable and one or two unaccented syllables associated with it. The most common type of feet are as follows: iambic u / trochaic / u anapestic u u / dactylic / u u pyrrhic u u spondaic / / (The following poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge illustrates all of these feet except the pyrrhic Foot: Trochee trips from long to short. From long to long in solemn sort Slow Spondee stalks; strong foot! yet ill able Ever to come up with Dactyl trisyllable. Iambics march from short to long; With a leap and a bound the swift Anapests throng.)

pun

a play on words that are identical or similar in sound but have sharply diverse meanings. Puns can have serious as well as humorous uses. An example is Thomas Hood's: "They went and told the sexton and the sexton tolled the bell."

quatrain

a four-line stanza with any combination of rhymes.

refrain

a group of words forming a phrase or sentence and consisting of one or more lines repeated at intervals in a poem, usually at the end of a stanza.

rhyme

close similarity or identity of sound between accented syllables occupying corresponding positions in two or more lines of verse. For a true rhyme, the vowels in the accented syllables must be preceded by different consonants, such as "fan" and "ran."

sarcasm

a type of irony in which a person appears to be praising something but is actually insulting it. Its purpose is to injure or to hurt.

satire

writing that seeks to arouse a reader's disapproval of an object by ridicule. Satire is usually comedy that exposes errors with an eye to correct vice and folly. Satire is often found in the poetry of Alexander Pope.

simile

a directly expressed comparison; a figure of speech comparing two objects, usually with "like," "as," or "than." It is easier to recognize a simile than a metaphor because the comparison is explicit: my love is like a fever; my love is deeper than a well. (The plural of "simile" is "similes" not "similies.")

sonnet

normally a fourteen-line iambic pentameter poem. The conventional Italian, or Petrarchan sonnet is rhymed abba, abba, cde, cde; the English, or Shakespearean, sonnet is rhymed abab, cdcd, efef, gg; the Spenserian sonnet is rhymed abab bcbc cdcd,ee

stanza

usually a repeated grouping of three or more lines with the same meter and rhyme Scheme.

structure

the arrangement of materials within a work; the relationship of the parts of a work to the whole; the logical divisions of a work. The most common units of structure in a poem are the line and stanza.

style

the mode of expression in language; the characteristic manner of expression of an author. Many elements contribute to style, and if a question calls for a discussion of style or of "stylistic techniques," you can discuss diction, syntax, figurative language, imagery, selection of detail, sound effects, and tone, using the ones that are appropriate.

symbol

something that is simultaneously itself and a sign of something else. For example, winter, darkness, and cold are real things, but in literature they are also likely to be used as symbols of death.

synecdoche

a form of metaphor which in mentioning a part signifies the whole. For example, we refer to "foot soldiers" for infantry and "field hands" for manual laborers who work in agriculture.

syntax

the ordering of words into patterns or sentences. If a poet shifts words from the usual word order, you know you are dealing with an older style of poetry or a poet who wants to shift emphasis onto a particular word.

tercet

a stanza of three lines in which each line ends with the same rhyme.

theme

the main thought expressed by a work. In poetry, it is the abstract concept which is made concrete through its representation in person, action, and image in the work.

tone

the manner in which an author expresses his or her attitude; the intonation of the voice that expresses meaning. (Remember that the "voice" need not be that of the poet.) Tone is described by adjectives, and the possibilities are nearly endless. Often a single adjective will be enough, and tone may change from stanza to stanza or even line to line. Tone is the result of allusion, diction, figurative language, imagery, irony, symbol, syntax, and style.

understatement

the opposite of hyperbole. It is a kind of irony that deliberately represents something as being much less than it really is. For example, Macbeth, having been nearly hysterical after killing Duncan, tells Lenox,:"Twas a rough night."

villanelle

a nineteen-line poem divided into five tercets and a final quatrain. The villanelle uses only two rhymes which are repeated as follows: aba, aba, aba, aba, aba, abaa. Line 1 is repeated entirely to form lines 6, 12, and 18, and line 3 is repeated entirely to form lines 9, 15, and 19; thus, eight of the nineteen lines are refrain. Dylan Thomas's poem "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" is an example of a villanelle.

en medias res

to begin in the middle of things

Stream of Consciousness

a style of writing that portrays the inner (often chaotic) workings of a character's mind. Mimics though patterns through run-on sentences, multiple types of punctuation (dashes-ellipses)

Narrative Distance

How near or far a narrator is to a story: physical, time, emotional connection, etc.

Indirect Characterization

A character's speech, thoughts, actions, looks and effect on others

Motif

(n.) a principal idea, feature, theme, or element; a repeated or dominant figure in a design