AP Literature Poetry Terms 2025 for Quiz on 12/18/25

These flashcards cover essential poetry terms and literary devices that are crucial for understanding AP Literature.

Diction

The writer’s word choice

Connotation

The imaginative associations we make with words.

Denotation

The dictionary definition of a word.

Onomatopoeia

The use of words that supposedly mimic their meaning with their sound (e.g., boom, click, pop).

Imagery

Language that expresses sense experience (sight, sound, taste, touch, smell).

Olfactory imagery

Imagery related to smell.

Tactile imagery

Imagery related to touch.

Visual imagery

Imagery related to sight.

Auditory imagery

Imagery related to sound.

Gustatory imagery

Imagery related to taste.

Organic imagery

Imagery we sense from inside of the body (e.g., fluttering in the stomach, pounding head ache).

Synesthesia

When one sense is blended with another (e.g., buzzing red dress).

Simile

Comparison of two dissimilar things using 'like', 'as', 'as if', 'seems', etc.

Metaphor

Comparison of two dissimilar things without using 'like', 'as', 'as if', 'seems', etc.

Extended metaphor

A metaphor sustained or developed through a considerable number of lines or through a whole poem.

Personification

Figurative language in which human attributes are given to an animal, object, or concept.

Metonymy

A person or thing represented by something closely associated with it (e.g., 'brass' for high military officers or “White House” for the executive branch).

Synecdoche

A part of a thing or person is used to represent the whole (e.g., 'wheels' for car). The “part” is attached.

Symbol

An object, person, situation, or action that represents an abstract idea.

Allusion

A reference to a famous person, place, thing, idea in literature or history.

Paradox

Two ideas that appear contradictory but create a kind of truth.

Apostrophe

Figurative language in which someone absent or dead or something nonhuman is addressed (spoken to) as if it could reply. “And you o my soul where you stand.” Whitman

Understatement

Saying less than one means or saying what one means with less force than the occasion warrants.

Hyperbole/Overstatement

Figurative language in which exaggeration is used

Irony

When the opposite of what is expected happens

Verbal irony

When what is said is the opposite of what is meant.

Homage

Special honor or respect shown publicly.

sonnet

a 14 line poem that often contains a volta (shift toward resolution)

couplet

two lines stanzas that often rhyme but in modern poems might not

jargon

the special vocabulary of a trade or profession

euphemism

using inoffensive language to substitute for objectionable language: “passed on” vs. “died”

concrete

words we know and perceive directly with our senses (opposite of abstract): book, car, maple tree, apple, bell.

archaic

words common to an older time period; antiquated language from the 1600, 1700, or 1800s

abstract

words that represent ideas or concepts that cannot be perceived directly with our senses (opposite of concrete words): freedom, love, equality, etc.

colloquial

words and phrases commonly used in informal conversational speech