AP Poetry Terms & Concepts

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering literary devices, metrical feet, poetic meters, stanza forms, and dramatic speeches from AP Poetry notes.

Accent

An emphasis or stress placed on a syllable in speech

Anapest

A metrical foot in verse in which two unstressed syllables are followed by a stressed syllable, as in "on a boat" or "in a slump" or the names Ju-li-et and Ma-ry Lou

Apostrophe

A direct address to someone or something. In poetry, often this is something usually not spoken to, such as "O Mountain!" or someone who is absent

Assonance

The repetition of vowel sounds that creates a kind of rhyme

Ballad

Traditionally, a song that tells a story. Ballads are characteristically compressed, dramatic, and objective in their narrative style

Blank verse

The most common meter of unrhymed poetry containing five iambic feet per line

Cacophony

Harsh, discordant sounds mirroring the meaning of the context

Caesura

A pause within a line of verse for effect

Consonance

A kind of rhyme in which linked words share similar consonant sounds but different vowel sounds, such as reason and raisin and mink and monk

Couplet

A two-line stanza, usually rhymed, with lines of equal length

Dactyl

A metrical foot of verse in which one stressed syllable is followed by two unstressed syllables, such as bat-ter-y or par-a-mour and the names Syl-vi-a and Nat-a-lie

Elegy

A lament or sadly meditative poem often written on a death

English sonnet

Also called Shakespearean sonnet. Rhyme scheme is organized into three quatrains with a final couplet abab cdcd efef gg

Enjambment

A line of verse that does not end in puncuation, but carries on grammatically to the next line; also called run-on

Euphony

The harmonious effect when the sounds of the words connect with the meaning of the poem in a pleasing way

Feminine Rhyme

A rhyme of two or more syllables with the stress on a syllable other than the last, such as in tur-tle and fer-tile

Foot

The unit of measurement in metrical poetry, usually two syllables

Iamb

A metrical foot in verse in which an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed one, such as "ex-plore" or "a cat" or the names Coll-een and Dan-ielle

Iambic meter

Verse meter consisting of a specific recurring number of iambic feet per line

Iambic pentameter

The most common meter in English verse-five iambic feet per line, such as "Shall / com-pare thee to a sum-mer's day?" Many fixed forms, such as the sonnet and heroic couplets, are written in iambic pentameter. Unrhymed iambic pentameter is blank verse.

Italian sonnet

Also called a Petrarchan sonnet, a sonnet with the first eight lines (octave) that sets up a situation, while the last six lines (sestet) answers it

Lyric

A short poem expressing the thoughts and feelings of a single speaker. Often written in first person, lyrical poetry traditionally has a song like immediacy and emotional force

Madrigal

A short secular song for three or more voices arranged in counterpoint, often about love or pastoral themes

Masculine rhyme

Rhyme of one syllable words, such as fox and socks or the rhyming of the final stressed syllable, such as con-trive and sur-vive

Meter

Recurrent, regular rhythmic pattern in verse

Metonymy

Figure of speech in which the name of a thing is substituted for that of another

Monologue

An extended speech by a singular character with other actors on stage

Motif

An element that recurs significantly throughout a narrative. A motif can be an image, idea, theme, symbol, situation, or action

Quatrain

A stanza consisting of four lines

Refrain

A word, phrase, line, or stanza repeated at intervals in a poem or song

Scansion

Practice used to describe rhythmic patterns in a poem by separating the metrical feet, counting the syllables, marking the accents, and indicating the pauses

Soliloquy

In drama, a speech by a character alone on stage who shares their true thoughts

Spondee

A metrical foot of verse containing two stressed syllables, such as baseball, airplane

Synecdoche

The use of a significant part of something to stand for the whole, such as wheels for car or Lend me your ears

Tercet

A group of three lines of verse

Terza rima

A verse of three lines that are connected by an overlapping rhyme scheme, such as aba bcb cdc, etc. Dante employs terza rima in The Divine Comedy

Tone

The attitude toward a subject conveyed in a literary work

Trochee

A metrical foot in which a stressed syllable is followed by an unstressed syllable, such as sum-mer and chor-us and names such as Rob-ert and Kait-lyn