Ap lit terms

Mood

Feeling created by the text

Tone

Attitude of the writer or character towards a given subject

Irony

When what "is" goes against expectations

Verbal irony

When what is said is either opposite of what is or is the opposite of its meaning

Situational irony

when an event occurs contrary to expectations

Dramatic irony

when an audience knows important information beyond what the character(s) knows

Couplet

Two lines

Tercet

Three lines

Quatrain

Four lines

Quintet(cinquain)

Five lines

Sestet(sextain)

Six lines

Septet

Seven lines

Octave(octet)

Eight lines

Paradox

set of seemingly contradictory elements which nevertheless reflects an underlying truth

Metonymy

a representative term is used for a larger idea

Synecdoche

utilizes a part as representative of the whole

Sound Devices

the use of words to create a desired sound or pattern

Masculine

rhyme occurs in the last syllable

Feminine

rhyme occurs in the last two or more syllables

Sight

words that look like they would rhyme but don't

Elegy

poem that laments the dead or a loss

Sonnet

14-line poem with a prescribed rhyme scheme in iambic pentameter

Sestina

a 39 line poem written in iambic pentameter with 6 repeating words in every stanza

Lyric

poetry characterized by emotion, personal feelings, and brevity

Ode

formal, lengthy poem that celebrates a particular subject

Ballad

simple, narrative poem often incorporating dialogue that is written in quatrains

Dramatic Monologue

poem that presents a conversation between a speaker and an implied listener

Anachronism

Placing an event, person, item, or verbal expression in the wrong historical period

Apostrophe

the act of addressing some abstraction or personification that is not physically present

Admonition

used to denote a poem that admonishes, one that strongly warns and reprimands an audience

Carpe Diem

seize the day

Asyndeton

A rhetorical term for a writing style that omits conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses

Pastoral

a work of literature portraying an idealized version of country life

Didactic

intended to teach, particularly in having moral instruction as an ulterior motive

Petrach

Italian sonnet made of an octave and sestet with the following rhyme scheme: ABBAABBACDCDCD or

ABBAABBACDECDE

English Sonnet

made of three quatrains and a couplet; Spenserian follows rhyme of ABABBCBCCDCDEE; Shakespearean follows Rhyme Scheme of ABABCDCDEFEFGG

Conceit

figure of speech that is developed through the sonnet

Volta

Major shift in a sonnet

Text

any arrangement of words

Narrative

text that tells a story

Plot

series of events that tell a story

Story Line

individual plot line (short stories usually have one, novels several)

Symbol

something that represents something else

Connotation

meanings associated with a word that go beyond its definition (denotation)

Suspense

creating tension within the reader by promoting questions or a desire to know what will happen next

Foreshadowing

the use of clues that suggest the outcome of situations in the narrative

monologue

A long, uninterrupted speech (in a narrative or drama) that is spoken in the presence of other

characters

stream of consciousness

style of writing that portrays the inner (often chaotic) workings of a character’s mind

journal

personal record of occurrences, experiences, and reflections kept on a regular basis; a diary or an official

record of daily proceedings, as of a legislative body

missive

A written message; a letter

epistolary

written as a series of documents. The usual form is letters, although diary entries, newspaper clippings

and other documents are sometimes used

oxymoron

figure of speech that combines contradictory terms

periodic sentence

sentence that places the main idea of central complete thought at the end of the sentence

epanalepsis

the repetition of the initial word/s of a clause(/sentence) at the

end of that same clause(/sentence)

cumulative/loose sentence

a sentence in which the main clause comes first, followed by further dependent grammatical units

antithesis

balancing words, phrases, or ideas that are strongly, contrasted, often by means of grammatical structure

vacillation

the swinging indecisively from one course of action or opinion to another

parallel structure

a balance within one or more sentences of similar phrases or clauses that have the same

grammatical structure

terza rima

a three-line stanza using chain rhyme in the pattern A-B-A, B-C-B, C-D-C, D-E-D.

heroic couplet

constructed from a sequence of rhyming pairs of lines in iambic pentameter

aphorism

a concise statement that is made in a matter of fact tone to state a principle or an opinion

that is generally understood to be a universal truth

homily

A sermon, or a short, exhortatory work to be read before a group of listeners in order to instruct them

spiritually or morally

epigram

(1) An inscription in verse or prose on a building, tomb, or coin. (2) a short verse or motto appearing at the

beginning of a longer poem or the title page of a novel, at the heading of a new section or paragraph of an essay or

other literary work to establish mood or raise thematic concerns. (3) A short, humorous poem, often written in

couplets, that makes a satiric point.

axiom

obvious maxim; a short, easily remembered expression of a basic principle, general truth, or rule of conduct

chiasmus

a type of rhetorical balance in which the second part is syntactically balanced against the first but with the parts reserved

double entendre

The deliberate use of ambiguity in a phrase or image

ALLEGORY

An extended story which carries a deeper meaning below the surface

Objective pov

Narrates what is seen and heard

3rd person pov

Narrator not in story

1st person pov

Narrator in story

2nd person pov

Character talks to reader directly

3rd omniscient pov

Knows everything

Frame story

Many short stories in one big story

Satire

Tone used to ridicule or make fun of human weakness

Apposition

Adding explanation after smtg

Inversion

Reversal of the normal word order in a sentence or phrase

Epistrophe

device of repetition in which the same expression is repeated of two or more lines

Microcosm

When a small group is used to represent the larger world