AP Lit Poetry Terms 🎀⭐️🙈🤭😝😡😐🫨

alliteration

the repetition at close intervals of initial identical consonant sounds or vowel sounds in successive words or syllables that repeat

anapest

two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable

approximate rhyme

words that do not exactly rhyme

assonance

repetition of similar vowel sounds followed by different consonant sounds in words that are close together

ballad

a song or song-like poem that tells a story. Most have a regular rhythm and a refrain

Beat Poetry

a movement of American writers in the 1950's who saw society as oppressively conformist

blank verse

written in unrhymed iambic pentameter

cadence

the natural rise and fall of the voice

caesura

a break or a pause in the word or verse

canto

a subdivision in a long poem, corresponding to a chapter in a book

conceit

a fanciful and elaborate figure of speech that makes a surprising connection between seemingly dissimilar things

consonance

repetition of a consonant sound within two or more words in proximity

couplet

two lines that rhyme, one following the other

dissonance

a harsh, discordant combination or sounds

elegy

a formal sustained poem lamenting the death of a particular person

end-stopped line

meter and meaning conclude with the end of the line

enjambment

a poetic technique in which one line ends without a pause and must continue to the next line

epic

a long narrative poem that relates the great deeds of a larger-than-life hero who embodies the values of a particular society

epitaph

poem about a dead person

extended metaphor

lengthy metaphor which involves several points of comparison

foot

consists of one stressed syllable and one or more unstressed syllables

free verse

Poetry that does not have a regular meter or rhyme scheme

haiku

a three-line poem with seventeen syllables, written in a 5/7/5 syllable count, often focusing on nature

iamb

unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable

iambic pentameter

most common metrical foot in English poetry, unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable

internal rhyme

rhyme that occurs within lines

lyric poetry

poetry that focuses on expressing emotions or thoughts, rather than telling a story

meter

a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a poem

metaphysical poetry

poetry of John Donne, Andrew Marvell and other 17th century poets who wrote in a difficult and abstract style

mock epic

a comic narrative poem that parodies the epic by treating a trivial subject in a lofty, grand manner

octave

an eight-line stanza of a poem, or the first eight lines of an Italian, or Petrarchan, sonnet

ode

a long lyric poem often commemorating a death

prose poem

a poem written in ordinary paragraph form, but with poetic elements

quatrain

a four-line rhyming stanza

regrain

a line, lines, or a stanza in a poem that repeats at intervals

rhyme

the repetition of word ending sounds; specifically, the repetition of accented vowel sounds plus any succeeding

rhyme scheme

the arrangement of stressed and unstressed sounds in speech and writing

scansion

marks the metrical pattern of a poem by breaking each line of verse up into feet and highlighting the accented and unaccented syllables

sestet

a six line stanza

sonnet

a 14 line poem, usually with a Shakespearean ending (couplet) (aka, Shakespearean, or English sonnet)

speaker

the imaginary voice, or persona, assumed by the author of a poem

stanza

a set of lines within a poem that are grouped together

trochee

a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable

villanelle

form of poetry in which 5 tercets (aba) are followed by a quatrain (abaa) repetition of the first line at the end of tercets 2 and 4

volta

a turn or transition in a sonnet's main argument, theme, or tone