AP Lit Poetry Terms

Anaphora

Repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of two or more sentences in a row.

Anastrophe

Inversion of the usual order of the parts of a sentence for rhythm or emphasis.

Antithesis

Balancing contrasting words, phrases, or ideas often through grammatical structure.

Aphorism

A brief, cleverly worded statement that makes a wise observation.

Apostrophe

Calling out to an imaginary or absent person or personified idea.

Apposition

Placing two or more coordinate elements in immediate succession, the latter explaining the first.

Assonance

Repetition of similar vowel sounds followed by different consonant sounds.

Cacophony

A harsh, discordant mixture of sounds.

Euphony

A pleasant, harmonious sound.

Caesura

A break or pause in a line of verse.

Conceit

An elaborate metaphor that compares two startlingly different things.

Connotation

The associations and emotional overtones attached to a word, beyond its literal definition.

Couplet

Two consecutive rhyming lines of poetry.

Enjambment

The continuation of a sentence or clause across a line break.

Epistrophe

Device of repetition where the same expression is repeated at the end of several lines or clauses.

Epithet

An adjective or adjective phrase frequently used to emphasize a characteristic quality.

Inversion

The reversal of the normal word order in a sentence.

Juxtaposition

Placing together normally unassociated ideas or phrases for effect.

Litotes

A form of understatement that emphasizes a positive through negation of a negative.

Implied Metaphor

A metaphor that does not explicitly state the terms of comparison.

Mixed Metaphor

A metaphor that confuses ideas or terms for visual or imaginative incompatibility.

Mood

An atmosphere created by a writer’s diction and selected details.

Paradox

A statement that appears self-contradictory but reveals a kind of truth.

Quatrain

A poem consisting of four lines.

Refrain

A repeated word, phrase, line, or group of lines in a poem for effect.

Soliloquy

A long speech by a character in a play while no other characters are present.

Rhythm

The rise and fall of voice produced by the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables.

Foot

A rhythmic unit containing stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry.

Meter

A combination of the type of foot and the number of feet in a line.