AP Lit Words 2

Assonance

the repetition of similar or identical vowel sounds within nearby words or syllables

Asyndeton

coordinating conjunctions (such as and, or, or but) are intentionally left out between words, phrases, or clauses in replacement with just commas

Balance

Constructing a sentence so that both halves are about the same length and importance. Sentences can be unbalanced to serve a special effect as well.

Ballad Meter

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. Blank verse is the meter of most of Shakespeare’s plays, as well as that of Milton’s Paradise Lost.

Cacophony

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 used consciously for effect, as Browning and Eliot often use it.

Caesura

a pause, usually near the middle of a line of verse, usually indicated by the sense of the line, and often greater than the normal pause. For example, one would naturally pause after “human’ in the following line from Alexander Pope: “To err is human, to forgive divine.”

Characterization

Indirect- describing how the character looks and dresses, by letting the reader hear what the character says, by revealing the character’s private thoughts and feelings, by revealing the characters effect on other people (showing how other characters feel or behave toward the character), or by showing the character in action.

Direct- tells us directly what the character is like: sneaky, generous, mean to pets and so on.

Chiasmus

In poetry, a type of rhetorical balance in which the second part is syntactically balanced against the first, but with the parts reversed. Coleridge: “Flowers are lovely, love is flowerlike.” In prose this is called antimetabole.

Cliche

is a word or phrase, often a figure of speech, that has become lifeless because of overuse. Avoid clichés like the plague. (That cliché is intended.)

Colloquialism

a word or phrase in everyday use in conversation and informal writing but is inappropriate for formal situations.

Comedy

in general, a story that ends with a happy resolution of the conflicts faced by the main character or characters.

Conceit

an elaborate metaphor that compares two things that are startlingly different.
Often an extended metaphor.

Confessional Poetry

a twentieth century term used to describe poetry that uses intimate material from the poet’s life.

Conflict

the struggle between opposing forces or characters in a story.

Internal- a conflict can be internal, involving opposing forces within a person’s mind.

External- conflicts can exist between two people, between a person and nature or a machine or between a person a whole society.