AP English Literature Vocabulary

pastoral

a work that describes the simple life of country folk who live in a timeless, painless life in a world full of beauty, music and love; bucolic, idyll

ode

a lyric poem that is somewhat serious in subject and treatment, elevated in style and sometimes uses elaborate stanza structure, which is often patterned in sets of three

apostrophe

an address or invocation to something that is inanimate

blank verse

the verse form consisting of unrhymed lines in iambic pentameter

syntax

the way words are put together to form phrases, clauses, and sentences

elegy

a poetic lament upon the death of a particular person, usually ending in consolation

extended metaphor

a detailed and complex metaphor that extends over a long section of a work; also called a conceit

farce

a play or scene in a play or book that is characterized by broad humor, wild antics, and often slapstick and physical humor

satire

uses humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to, criticize, and mock human vices, or shortcomings

iambic

a metrical foot in poetry that consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable

conceit

a comparison of two unlikely things that is drawn out within a piece of literature; in particular, an extended metaphor within a poem

lyric

any short poem in which the speaker expresses intense personal emotion rather than desciribing a narrative or dramatic situation; a sonnet and ode are two examples

villanelle

19 line poem, with five tercets followed by a quatrain, with a specific rhyme scheme (ABA) and repeated lines.

parable

a short fiction that illustrates an explicit moral lesson through the use of analogy

persona

the voice or figure of the author who tells and structures the story and who may or may not share the values of the actual author

refrain

a repeated stanza or line(s) in a poem or song

Shakespearean sonnet

a sonnet form divided into three alternating quatrains and one couple

Petrachan sonnet

Octave ABBAABBA, followed by a sestet CDCDCE

sestina

six six-line stanzas followed by a tercet; the same set of six words ends the lines of each of the six-line stanzas, but in a different order each time

terza rima

a verse form consisting of three-line stanzas in which the second line of each rhymes with the first and third of the next

Aphorism

a statement of truth or opinion expressed in a concise and witty manner

Binary Opposition

defining a system of two related, opposite terms that are mutually exclusive

sarcasm

the use of irony to mock or convey contempt.

Bildungsroman

coming of age stage

Frame Story

a story that contains a story within another story

Horatian satire

A gentle, sympathetic form of satire in which the subject is mildly made fun of with a show of engaging wit

Juvenalian satire

A harsh, critical form of satire that targets societal vice and corruption, often with contempt.

Foil

A foil is ​ a secondary character who contrasts with the major character to enhance the importance of that major character.

Epithet

an adjective or other descriptive phrase that is regularly used to characterize a person, place, or thing and is often characterized with a hyphen.

Malapropism

an inappropriateness of speech resulting from the use of one word for another, which resembles it.

Cacophony

a harsh, unpleasant combination of sound.

Euphony

pleasing sounds

Closed poetry

Closed forms of poetry include predictable patterns

Open poetry

Open forms of poetry may not follow expected or predictable patterns

Ballad

A popular narrative song passed down orally

Complaint

A poem of lament, often directed at an ill-fated love

Concrete Poetry

Verse that emphasizes nonlinguistic elements in its meaning

Elegy/Lament

a melancholy poem that laments its subject’s death but ends in consolation