ap lit vocab words for the bs test

Meter

basic rhythmic structure of a verse, made up of feet

Scansion

analysis of a poem's metrical structure

Iambic Pentameter

most common meter in English poetry - sequence of five iambic feet each consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one: da-DUM

Trochaic Meter

the inverse of iambic meter: DUM-da

Euphony

words that sound good together (musical)

Cacophony

sounds that grate, annoy, or create a sense of distaste

Onomatopoeia

imitates the sound it refers to

Imagery

language that appeals directly to one of the senses: touch, sight, hearing, smell, or taste

Synesthesia

when description of one kind of sensation produces another

Tone

manner in which something is said; voice the poet projects

Rhythm

pacing, pauses, and flow we perceive as we read a poem

Rhyme

regular sound patterns

End rhyme

rhyme that occurs at the end of verse lines

Internal rhyme

rhyme between a word at the end of a line and a word within the same or nearby line

Eye rhyme

words that look alike but do not sound alike (blood/food)

Alliteration

repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words

Assonance

repetition of vowel sounds

Consonance

repetition of consonant sounds within or at the end of words

Dissonance

disruption of harmonic sounds or rhythms

Verse

rhymed or metrical poetry; a line or stanza of such poetry

Blank Verse

unrhymed iambic pentameter

Free Verse

poetry without regular rhyme, stanza pattern, or meter

Metaphor

implied comparison of two unlike things

Simile

explicit comparison of two unlike things

Irony

saying one thing and meaning another

Paradox

apparent contradiction that reveals a deeper truth

Personification / Pathetic Fallacy

giving human characteristics to a nonhuman thing

Pun

play on words with multiple meanings or similar sounds

Metonymy

using something closely related to stand for the thing itself ("the house" for casino)

Synecdoche

using a part to represent the whole ("wheels" for car)

Hyperbole

exaggeration for effect

Litotes

understatement using negation ("not bad" meaning good)

Symbol

image, event, or word that stands for something else

Allegory

a fixed system of symbols representing one other thing; no interpretive flexibility

Sonnet

14-line poem in iambic pentameter with end rhyme

Ode

long, lyric poem of elevated tone praising its subject

Couplet

two rhymed lines

Tercet / Triplet

three rhymed lines

Quatrain

four-line stanza

Stanza

group of verse lines set off by a space

Apostrophe

direct address to an absent person, idea, or object

Theme

the main idea or claim expressed in a poem

Allusion

reference to art, culture, history, or literature

Denotation

dictionary definition of a word

Connotation

emotional or cultural meaning of a word

Diction

word choice

Dramatic monologue

poem that presents one side of a conversation or speaker’s voice

Internal dramatic monologue

stream-of-consciousness dramatic monologue

End-stopped lines

lines that end with a pause or punctuation

Run-on lines / Enjambement

lines that continue without pause into the next line

Caesura

pause or break within a line of poetry

Prose poem

poem written in paragraph form without line breaks

Concrete poem

poem whose shape visually reflects its subject

Conceit

elaborate extended metaphor between dissimilar things

Asyndeton

omission of conjunctions between parts of a sentence

Polysyndeton

use of many conjunctions in close succession