AP Literature Literary Terms Study Guide

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symbolism

the practice of using people, things, or ideas to represent something else.

imagery

using descriptive language that appeals to the senses to describe or represent objects, ideas, or people.

figure of speech

a word or phrase that is not meant to be taken literally but implies another meaning such as the simile, metaphor, personification, oxymoron, and hyperbole.

simile

a figure of speech comparing two unlike things using "like" or "as."

metaphor

a figure of speech that compares unlike things by stating that something IS something else.

personification

a figure of speech that gives human characteristics to inanimate objects.

hyperbole

a figure of speech that uses excessive exaggeration to make a point.

oxymoron

a figure of speech that combines seemingly contradictory terms.

irony

the contrast which exists between what appears to be true and reality; In a short story, situational irony occurs when the actual outcome is the opposite of what is expected.

foreshadowing

when an author gives the reader clues about the eventual outcome, usually for the purpose of building suspense.

allusion

a reference to a character, place, or situation from another work of literature or an event in history.

setting

the time and place where the action in a story or poem happens.

point of view

refers to the relationship of the narrator to the story.

speaker

the voice that speaks to the reader in a poem.

theme

the central idea, subject, or message of the story.

rhythm

the basic beat of a line of poetry; the sound pattern created by stressed and unstressed syllables in a line; can be regular or irregular.

meter

a regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables made of poetic units called “feet”; the number of “feet” in a line can be: “monometer” - 1 foot; “dimeter” - 2 feet; “trimeter” - 3 feet; “tetrameter” - 4 feet; “pentameter” - 5 feet; “hexameter” - 6 feet; “heptameter” - 7 feet.

rhyme

the repetition of the same stressed vowel sounds in words or lines.

rhyme scheme

the pattern of end rhymes in a poem described with lowercase letters to indicate which lines rhyme.

stanza

a group of lines in a poem or song acting as the poem’s “paragraph”.

iambic

a “foot” having two syllables where the accent lies on the second syllable as in “hello”.

trochaic

a “foot” having two syllables where the accent lies on the first syllable as in “sunny”.

sound devices

used to convey the meaning or experience through the use of sound; alliteration, assonance, consonance, and onomatopoeia.

alliteration

the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words.

assonance

the repetition of vowel sounds in words.

consonance

the repetition of consonant sounds in words.

onomatopoeia

the use of a word that sounds like its meaning; “buzz”, “clang”.