AP Literature Poetry Terms

Alexandrine

A line of poetry that has 12 syllables, consisting regularly of 6 iambs with caesura after the third iamb

Alliteration

Repetition of initial consonant sounds through a sequence of words

Allusion

an expression designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly; an indirect or passing reference. (IE the Bible, myth, other literary works, etc.) and any imaginary or historical person, place, or thing

Apostrophe

A figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person is directly address through thought

Assonance

the repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds in conjunction with dissimilar consonant sounds

auditor

an imaginary listener within a literary work, as opposed to the actual reader or audience outside the work

blank meter/verse

a four-line stanza rhymed abcd with four feet in lines one and three and three feet in lines two and four.

Caesura

A natural pause or break in a line of poetry, is not always signaled by punctuation

Conceit

A fanciful expression, usually in the form of an extended metaphor or surprising analogy between seemingly dissimilar objects.

Consonance

Repetition of a consonant sound within two or more words in close proximity.

Ekphrasis

The poetic representation of a painting or sculpture in words

elegy (1)

formal lament on the death of a particular, but focusing on the effort of coming to terms with his or her grief

elegy (2)

more broadly, any lyric in a sorrowful mood that takes death as its primary subject

end-stopped

a line with a pause at the end. Lines that end with a period, a comma, a colon, a semicolon, an exclamation point, or a question mark are end-stopped lines.

Enjambment

the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza.

Epistrophe

the repetition of a word at the end of successive clauses or sentences

extended metaphor

an implied analogy, or comparison, which is carried throughout a stanza or an entire poem

free verse

poetry characterized by varying line lengths, lack of traditional meter, and non-rhyming lines

iambic pentameter

a poetic meter that is made up of 5 unstressed syllables each followed by an stressed syllable

Lyric Poem

any short poem that presents a single speaker who expresses thoughts and feelings

meter

the repetition of a regular rhythmic unit in a line of poetry

Scansion

a system for describing the meter of a poem by identifying the number and the type(s) of feet per line

Monometer

one foot per line

Dimeter

two feet per line

Trimeter

three feet per line

Tetrameter

four feet per line

Pentameter

five feet per line

Hexameter

six feet per line

heptameter

seven feet per line

octometer

eight foot per line

narrative poem

a non-dramatic poem which tells a story or presents a narrative, whether simple or complex, long or short (epics/ballads)

Ode

a lyrical poem characterized by a serious topic and formal tone but without a prescribed formal pattern

Onomatopoeia

a word capturing or approximating the sound of what it describes

Poetic foot

the basic unit of poetic meter

Iamb (Iambic)

referring to a metrical form in which each foot consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one (ex: a-MUSE, po-TRAY)

Trochee (trochaic)

a metrical unit of verse consisting of one stressed syllable followed by an unstressed (ex: TRO-chee, PUMP-kin)

anapest (anapestic)

a metrical foot consisting of two short or unstressed syllables followed by one long or stressed syllable. (ex: com-pre-HEND)

dactyl (dactylic)

referring to the metrical pattern in which each foot consists of a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed ones
(ex: FAB-u-lous)

spondee (spondaic)

a metrical foot consisting of two stressed syllables (ex: PAN-CAKE, RAIL-ROAD)

pyrrhic (pyrrhic)

a metrical foot consisting of two unstressed syllables (ex: of-the, in-an)

Poetry

one of the three major types of literature

open form

poetry that does not follow a regular, predictable pattern of rhyme, rhythm/meter, or line length; relies on natural speech rhythms

closed form

poetry that follows a certain definite pattern of rhyme, rhythm/meter, line length, or stanza division

Refrian

a group of words forming a phrase or sentence and consisting of one or more lines repeated at intervals in poem, usually at the end of a stanza

end rhyme

occurs when the last word in two or more lines of poem rhyme with each other

Slant/Near rhyme

Rhyme that is slightly "off" or only approximate, usually because words' final consonant sounds correspond, but not the vowels that proceed them ("phases" and "houses").

Internal rhyme

occurs when a word within a line of poetry rhymes with another word in the same or adjacent lines

eye rhyme

involves words that don't actually rhyme but look like they do because of their similar spelling ("cough" and "bough")

Feminine Rhyme

a rhyme of two syllables, one stressed and one unstressed (double rhyme)

masculine rhyme

rhyme that falls on the stressed and concluding syllables of the rhyme-words

rhyme royal

A seven-line stanza of iambic pentameter rhymed ababbcc, used by Chaucer and other medieval poets.

rhyme scheme

the patterns of end rhyme in a poem, often noted by small letters, such as abab or abba

Rhythm

the modulation of weak and strong (stressed and unstressed) elements in the flow of speech

Stanza

a section of a poem, marked by extra line spacing before and after, that often has a single pattern of meter and/or rhyme

Couplet

a two-line stanza, usually with end-rhymes the same

Tercet

a stanza of three lines in which each line ends with the same rhyme

Quatrain

a four-line stanza with any combination of rhymes

Quintain

a five-line stanza of verse

Sestet

a six-line stanza. Most commonly, sestet refers to the second division of an Italian sonnet.

Septet

a seven line stanza of verse

Octave

an eight-line stanza. Most commonly, octave refers to the first division of an Italian sonnet.

terza rima

a verse form with a rhyme scheme: aba bcb cdc, etc.

Sonnet

normally a fourteen-line iambic pentameter poem

Italian/Petrarchan Sonnet

consists of eight rhymed-linked lines (an octave) followed by a six rhymed-linked lines (a sestet), often with either abbaabba, cdecde or abbacddc, defdef rhyme scheme

Shakespearean (English)

3 quatrains (stanzas of 4 lines) and a couplet (2 lines); Rhyme scheme: abab,cdcd,efef,gg

Spenserian

a sonnet in which the lines are grouped into three interlocked quatrains and a couplet and the rhyme scheme is abab, bcbc, cdcd, ee.

Sestina

An elaborate verse structure written in blank verse that consists of six stanzas of six lines each followed by a three line stanza. The final words of each line in the first stanza appear in variable order in the next five stanzas, and are repeated in the middle and at the end of the three lines in the final stanza.

Villanelle

a verse form consisting of nineteen lines divided into six stanzas- five tercets and one quatrain; the first and third line of the first tercet rhyme, and this rhyme is repeated through each of the next four tercets and in the last two lines of the concluding quatrain

Ballad

a verse narrative that is, or originally was, meant to be sung. Characterized by repetition and often by refrain (a recurrent phrase or series of phrases), Ballads were originally a folk creation, transmitted orally from person to person and age to age

Limerick

A light or humorous verse form consisting of five mainly anapestic lines or which the first, second, anf fifth are three feet; the third and fourth are of two feet; and the rhyme scheme is abba