AP Literature - Poetry Test Terms

Terms that will appear on the December Poetry Unit Test

Alliteration

Repetition of initial consonant sounds

Apostrophe

A figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person or a personified abstraction, such as liberty or love.

Assonance

Repetition of vowel sounds

Consonance

Repetition of consonant sounds

End rhyme

Rhyme that occurs at the end of two or more lines of poetry

Exact rhyme

the repetition of the same stressed vowel sound as well as any consonant sounds that follow the vowel

Internal rhyme

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

Metaphor

A comparison without using like or as

Onomatopoeia

A word that imitates the sound it represents.

Personification

the giving of human qualities to an animal, object, or idea

Rhythm

Pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables

Simile

A comparison using "like" or "as"

Slant rhyme

an approximate rhyme derived by substituting assonance or consonance for true rhyme

Ballad stanza

a poetic form with quatrains rhyming ABAC or ABAB; 8 syllables in the A lines, 6 in the others (Amazing Grace, America the Beautiful, etc.)

Couplet

Two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme (or a 2-line stanza)

Heroic couplet

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

Quatrain

a four-line stanza with any combination of rhymes

Sestina

a fixed verse form consisting of six stanzas of six lines each, normally followed by a three-line envoi

The six end-words in each line are repeated throughout the poem in a regular pattern

Sonnet

a fourteen-line lyric poem, usually written in rhymed iambic pentameter

Stanza

a section or a division of a poem; specifically, a grouping of lines of poetry

Villanelle

a nineteen-line poem consisting of five tercets(triplets) and a quatrain, Lines 1 and 3 alternately repeated at the ends of each stanza

Blank verse

Poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter

Foot

the basic unit of rhythmic measurement in a line of poetry

Free verse

has no regular beat or meter, but rather depends on the individual poet's sensitivity to the rhythm of natural speech

Iambic pentameter

occurs in a ten-syllable line starting with alternating unstressed and stressed syllables throughout the line

Meter

the basic rhythmic structure of a line within a poem

Shakespearean Sonnet/English Sonnet

Sonnet containing three quatrains and a couplet with the rhyme scheme ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG

Petrarchan/Italian Sonnet

An octave and a sestet. Octave must rhyme abba abba; the rhyme scheme of the sestet can vary.

synecdoche

Figurative language in which the speaker uses a part of a thing/person to stand for the whole (nice wheels = I like your car; all hands on deck = the whole worker is needed, not just the hands)

metonymy

Figurative language in which you mean to reference someone/something by stating something associated with that person/thing (Hollywood = the movie industry, The Crown = the monarchy)

hyperbole

Overblown exaggeration

antithesis

A sentence with 2 parallel clauses that present contrasting ideas (Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more)

symbol

an object that takes on significance because it represents an abstract idea

pantoum

A poem written in quatrains in which two lines are repeated in the next stanza

sestet

a 6-line stanza

octave

an 8-line stanza

dramatic monologue

A poem in which the speaker is a fictional character who is addressing an implied audience (usually another fictional character)

narrative

a poem that has a plot (tells a story)

lyric

Most poems are this type - a single speaker talks about their thoughts/feelings in a brief poem