AP Lit Poetry terms 51-75

Ms. Swart, AP Lit

Pentameter

a line containing 5 feet

Persona

Literally, a mask. In Lit, a speaker created by a writer to tell a story or speak in a poem

Personification*

A figure of speech where human attributes are given to an animal, object, or concept

Phonetic Intensive*

A word whose sound to some degree reflects its meaning (“Choked”)

Polysyndeton

deliberate use of many conjugations

Pun

a humorous play on words

Pun - Antanaclasis

repetition of a word in two different senses (Your argument is sound… nothing but sound)

Pun - Paronomasia

use of words alike in sound but different in meaning (Ask for me tomorrow and you will find me a grave man)

Quatrain

four-line stanza

Rhetorical Question

A question asked for effect not in expectation of a reply

Run-On-Line*

a line, which has no natural speech pause at its end, allowing the sentence to flow uninterruptedly into the succeeding line

Sestet

a six-stanza line

Simile

a comparison between two unlike things using the linking verbs like or as

Sonnet

A fixed form of fourteen lines with a rhyme scheme (usually iambic pentameter); often conforming to or approximating one of the two main types: Shakespearean or Petrarchan

Shakespearean Sonnet

a sonnet rhyming abab cdcd efef gg. Usually a correspondence between the units marked off by rhymes and the development of the thought.

Petrarchan Sonnet

a sonnet divided between 8 lines called an octave, using rhymes arranged abba abba, and six lines called a sestet, using any arrangement of either 2 or 3 rhyme groupings: cdcdcd & cdecde are common patterns. (Usually a division of thought between octave and sestet)

Stanza

A group of lines whose metrical pattern is repeated throughout the poem

Synecdoche*

A figure of speech where a part represents the whole; ex Chicago won by two point

Syntax

set of rules in language: how words are put together to create meaning

Tercet

a three-line stanza

Tone

The writer / speakers attitude toward the subject, audience, or him/herself; emotional meaning of a work

Trochee

a foot in a line of poetry of two syllables - stressed-unstressed

Undestatement

figure of speech used to intentionally make a situation seem less important than it is (Winning $26 million, and saying “I’m delighted”)

Verse

A line or stanza of poetry

Villanelle

A highly specialized French Poem with 19 lines, divided into 5 tercets and 1 quatrain; two rhymes or repeated lines dominate; aba aba aba aba aba abaa