AP lit terms

Anaphora

The repetition of an initial word or words to add emphasis

Apostrophe

A direct address to an abstraction, a thing, an animal or an imaginary or absent person

Blank verse

Unrhymed iambic pentameter

Couplet

A two line rhyming stanza

End rhyme

A rhyme at the end of two or more lines of poetry

End stopped rhyme

In poetry, a line ending in a full pause, often indicated by a period or semicolon

Eye (sight) rhyme

A rhyme that only works because two words look the same

Free verse

A form of poetry with no regular rhyme or rhyme scheme

Iamb

Unstressed, stressed meter

Internal rhyme

A rhyme between a word in the middle of a line and another at the end of the line or the middle of next.

Near/slant rhyme

A rhyme that pairs sounds that are similar but not the same

Octet

An eight line stanza

Ode

A form of poetry used to meditate on or address a single object or condition.

Poetic syntax

The arrangement of words into lines: where they break or do not break, use of enjambment or caesura and line/length patterns

Quatrain

A four line stanza

Sestet

A six line stanza

Tercet

A three line stanza

Trochee

Stressed, unstressed meter

Petrarchan sonnet

Fourteen lines divided into an octave and a sestet. The octave stanza follows a rhyme scheme of abba abba. The sestet typically follows cdcdcd.

Shakespearean sonnet

Fourteen lines split into 3 quatrains and a couplet. The rhyme scheme is abab cdcd efef gg.