Helpful Poetry Terms for AP Literature

This set of flashcards covers 70 essential poetry terms for AP Literature, including forms, sound devices, figures of speech, and structural elements.

alliteration

The repetition of identical or similar consonant sounds, normally at the beginnings of words, such as "Gnus never know pneumonia."

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, which balances terms against each other for emphasis or stylistic effectiveness.

apostrophe

A figure of speech in which someone absent, some abstract quality, or a nonexistent personage is directly addressed as though present.

assonance

The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds, such as the "a" sound in "laid," "waste," and "slain."

ballad meter

A four-line stanza rhymed abcd with four feet in lines one and three and three feet in lines two and four.

blank verse

Unrhymed iambic pentameter, which is the meter used in most of Shakespeare’s plays and Milton’s Paradise Lost.

cacophony

A harsh, unpleasant combination of sounds or tones, which may be an unconscious flaw or used consciously for poetic effect.

caesura

A pause, usually near the middle of a line of verse, often indicated by the sense of the line and greater than a normal pause.

conceit

An ingenious and fanciful notion or conception expressed through an elaborate analogy, pointing to a striking parallel between two seemingly dissimilar things.

consonance

The repetition of similar consonant sounds in a group of words, usually referring to words where the ending consonants are the same but the preceding vowels are different.

couplet

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

devices of sound

Techniques of deploying word sounds, such as rhyme, alliteration, assonance, consonance, and onomatopoeia, to create specific effects or reflect meaning.

diction

The use of words in a literary work, which may be described as formal, informal, colloquial, or slang.

didactic poem

A poem which is intended primarily to teach a lesson.

dramatic poem

A poem which employs a dramatic form or elements of dramatic techniques to achieve poetic ends, such as a dramatic monologue.

elegy

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

end-stopped

A line of poetry that ends with a pause, indicated by punctuation such as a period, comma, colon, semicolon, exclamation point, or question mark.

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 throughout a stanza or an entire poem.

euphony

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

eye rhyme

Rhyme that appears correct from the spelling but is actually half-rhyme or slant rhyme based on pronunciation, such as "watch and match."

feminine rhyme

A rhyme of two syllables, one stressed and one unstressed, also known as double rhyme.

figurative language

Writing that uses figures of speech such as metaphor, irony, and simile to mean something other than the literal meaning of the words.

free verse

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

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 used for either serious or comic effect.

imagery

The sensory details or figurative language of a literary work, especially the visual, auditory, or tactile images evoked by words.

irony

The contrast between actual meaning and the suggestion of another meaning, achieved through devices like hyperbole and understatement.

internal rhyme

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

lyric poem

Any short poem that presents a single speaker who expresses thoughts and feelings, including sonnets and odes.

masculine rhyme

Rhyme that falls on the stressed and concluding syllables of the rhyme-words.

metaphor

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

meter

The repetition of a regular rhythmic unit in a line of poetry, with each unit known as a foot.

metonymy

A figure of speech characterized by the substitution of a term naming an object closely associated with a word for the word itself.

mixed metaphors

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

narrative poem

A non-dramatic poem which tells a story or presents a narrative, such as epics and ballads.

octave

An eight-line stanza, most commonly referring to the first division of an Italian sonnet.

onomatopoeia

The use of words whose sound suggests their meaning, such as "buzz," "hiss," or "honk."

oxymoron

A form of paradox that combines a pair of contrary terms into a single expression to shock the reader into awareness.

paradox

A situation, action, or feeling that appears contradictory but on inspection turns out to be true or makes sense.

parallelism

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

paraphrase

A restatement of ideas that retains the original meaning while changing the diction and form, often for the purpose of clarity.

personification

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

poetic foot

A group of syllables in verse usually consisting of one accented syllable and one or two unaccented syllables.

pun

A play on words that are identical or similar in sound but have sharply diverse meanings.

quatrain

A four-line stanza with any combination of rhymes.

refrain

A group of words, phrases, or lines repeated at intervals in a poem, usually at the end of a stanza.

rhyme

Close similarity or identity of sound between accented syllables in corresponding positions in two or more lines of verse.

rhyme royal

A seven-line stanza of iambic pentameter rhymed ababbcc.

rhythm

The recurrence of stressed and unstressed syllables.

sarcasm

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

satire

Writing that seeks to arouse a reader’s disapproval of an object by ridicule, exposing errors to correct vice and folly.

scansion

A system for describing the meter of a poem by identifying the number and type(s) of feet per line.

sestet

A six-line stanza, most commonly referring to the second division of an Italian sonnet.

simile

A directly expressed comparison between two objects, usually using "like," "as," or "than."

sonnet

Normally a fourteen-line iambic pentameter poem, appearing in Italian (Petrarchan) or English (Shakespearean) forms.

stanza

A repeated grouping of three or more lines with the same meter and rhyme scheme.

strategy (or rhetorical strategy)

The management of language and planned placing of elements to achieve a specific effect in a poem.

structure

The arrangement of materials within a work and the relationship of the parts to the whole; common units in poetry are the line and stanza.

style

The mode of expression in language or characteristic manner of an author, encompassing diction, syntax, imagery, and tone.

symbol

Something that is simultaneously itself and a sign of something else.

synecdoche

A form of metaphor in which mentioning a part signifies the whole, such as "foot soldiers" for infantry.

syntax

The ordering of words into patterns or sentences.

tercet

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

terza rima

A three-line stanza rhymed aba, bcb, cdc, etc.

theme

The main thought expressed by a work; an abstract concept made concrete through representation in the work.

tone

The manner in which an author expresses an attitude, resulting from factors like allusion, diction, imagery, and style.

understatement

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

villanelle

A nineteen-line poem divided into five tercets and a final quatrain, using only two rhymes and eight lines of refrain.