AP Poetry Terms

Alliteration

Alliteration

The repetition of identical or similar consonant sounds, normally at the beginning of words.

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.

Assonance

The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds.

Cacophony (Cacophonous Sounds)

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 consciously used for effect.

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.

Couplet

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

Devices of Sound

The techniques of deploying the sound of words, especially in poetry. Among devices are rhyme, alliteration, assonance, consonance, and onomatopoeia.

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 form formal usage as yet).

Elegy

A sustained and formal poem setting forth the poet’s meditations upon death or another solemn theme.

Enjambment

The continuation of the sense and grammatical construction from one line of poetry to the next.

Extended Metaphor

An implied analogy, or comparison, which is carried out through a stanza or an entire poem.

Euphony (Euphonic sound)

A style in which combinations of words pleasant to the ear predominate. Its opposite is cacophony.

Slant Rhyme

Rhyme that appears correct from spelling, but is half-rhyme or eye rhyme from pronunciation.

Double rhyme

A rhyme of two syllables, one stressed and one unstressed.

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.

Free verse

Poetry which is not written in a traditional meter but is still rhythmic.

Heroic Couplet

Two end-stopped iambic pentameter lines rhymed aa, bb, cc with the thought usually completed in the two-line unit.

Hyperbole

A deliberate, extravagant, and often outrageous exaggeration. It may be used for either serious or comic effect.

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 languages evokes.

Irony

The contrast between actual meaning and the suggestion of another meaning.

Internal Rhyme

Rhyme that occurs within a line, rather than at the end.

Metaphor

A figurative use of language in which a comparison is expressed without the use of comparative terms like “as,” “like,” or “than.”

Meter

The repetition of a regular rhythmic unit in a line of poetry. Emphasizes the musical quality of the language and often relates directly to the subject matter of the poem. Each unit of a meter (sets of stressed and unstressed syllables) 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.

Mixed Metaphors

The mingling of one metaphor with another immediately following with which the first is incongruous.

Onomatopoeia

The use of words whose sounds suggest their meaning.

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.

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.

parallelism

A similar grammatical structure within a line or lines of poetry.

Paraphrase

A restatement of an idea in such a way as to retain the meaning while changing the diction and form.

Personification

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

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.

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.

Rhythm

The recurrence of stressed and unstressed syllables. The presence of rhythmic patterns lends both pleasure and heightened emotional response to the listener or reader.

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.

Simile

A directly expressed comparison; a figure of speech comparing two objects, usually with, “like,” “as,” or “than.”

Sonnet

Normally a fourteen-line pentameter poem. Sonnet is ABBA, ABBA, CDE, CDE or ABAB, CDCD, AFAF, GG

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. Most common in poem are lines or stanzas.

Style

The mode of expression in language; the characteristic manner of expression of an author. Many elements contribute to the style; diction, syntax, figurative language, imagery, selection of detail, sound effects, and tone, using the ones that are appropriate.

Synecdoche

A form of metaphor which in mentioning a part signifies the whole.

Syntax

The ordering of words into patterns or sentences.

Tone

The manner in which the author expresses his or her attitude; the intonation of the voice that expresses meaning.

Understatement

The opposite of hyperbole. It is a kind of irony that deliberately represents something as being much less than it really is.