poetry terms

terms for the ap lit test

alliteration

The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words or within words.

analogy

A comparison of similar things, often for the purpose of using something familiar to explain something unfamiliar.

anastrophe

A rhetorical term for the inversion of the normal order of the parts of a sentence.

apostrophe

The device, usually in poetry, of calling out to an imaginary, dead, or absent person, or to a place, thing, or personified abstraction.

assonance

The close repetition of middle vowel sounds between different consonant sounds.

cacophony

Harsh, clashing, or dissonant sounds, often produced by combinations of words requiring a clipped, explosive delivery.

caesura

A pause within a line of poetry, often resulting from the natural rhythm of language.

conceit

An elaborate figure of speech comparing two very dissimilar things.

connotation

The associations, images, or impressions carried by a word, as opposed to the word's literal meaning.

consonance

The close repetition of identical consonant sounds before and after differing vowel sounds.

denotation

The precise, literal meaning of a word, without emotional associations or overtones.

enjambment

The carrying of sense and grammatical structure in a poem beyond the end of one line and into the next.

euphony

A succession of sweetly melodious sounds; the opposite of cacophony.

Homeric epithet

A hyphenated adjective used repeatedly in conjunction with the same noun.

hyperbole

Obvious, extravagant exaggeration or overstatement, not intended to be taken literally.

kenning

A metaphoric compound word or phrase used as a synonym for a common noun.

metaphor

A figure of speech, an implied analogy in which one thing is compared to another dissimilar thing.

metonymy

A figure of speech that substitutes the name of a related object or idea for the subject at hand.

onomatopoeia

The use of words whose sound imitates the sound of the thing being named.

parallelism

The technique of showing that words or phrases are comparable in content and importance.

personification

A figure of speech in which human characteristics are attributed to non-human entities.

simile

A figure of speech that uses like, than, as, or as if to compare two different objects.

synecdoche

A figure of speech in which a part of something stands for the whole.

scansion

Analyzing the meter in lines of poetry by counting and marking syllables.

foot

The basic unit of rhythmic measurement in a line of poetry.

meter

The fixed pattern of accented and unaccented syllables in the lines of a poem.

blank verse

Poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter.

couplet

Two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme and share the same meter.

elegy

A poem of sorrow or mourning for the dead; a reflective poem.

free verse

A type of poetry that lacks regular meter and rhyme.

idyll

A short descriptive piece about picturesque country life.

ode

A long and elaborate lyric poem, written to praise someone or something.

sonnet

A fourteen-line lyric poem in iambic pentameter.

terza rima

A form of verse composed of three-line stanzas linked by rhyme.

villanelle

A lyric poem made up of five tercets followed by a quatrain, with a specific rhyme scheme.