AP Literature Terms

Aesthetic

Appealing to the senses; a coherent sense of taste.

Anachronism

"Misplaced in time." An aspect of a story that doesn't belong in its supposed time setting.

Aphorism

A short and usually witty saying.

Apostrophe

A figure of speech wherein the speaker talks directly to something that is nonhuman.

Archaism

The use of deliberately old-fashioned language.

Aside

A speech (usually just a short comment) made by an actor to the audience, as though momentarily stepping outside of the action on stage.

Assonance

The repeated use of vowel sounds: "Old king Cole was a merry old soul."

Bathos

Writing strains for grandeur it can't support and tries too hard to be a tear jerker.

Bombast

Pretentious, exaggeratedly learned language.

Burlesque

Broad parody, one that takes a style or form and exaggerates it into ridiculousness.

Canto

The name for a section division in a long work of poetry.

Consonance

The repetition of consonant sounds within words (rather than at their beginnings)

Doggerel

Crude, simplistic verse, often in sing-song rhyme, like limericks.

Enjambment

The continuation of a syntactic unit from one line or couplet of a poem to the next with no pause.

Euphemism

A word or phrase that takes the place of a harsh, unpleasant, or impolite reality.

Euphony

When sounds blend harmoniously.

Feminine rhyme

Lines rhymed by their final two syllables. Properly, the penultimate syllables are stressed and the final syllables are unstressed.

Foot

The basic rhythmic unit of a line of poetry, formed by a combination of two or three syllables, either stressed or unstressed.

In media res

Latin for "in the midst of things," i.e. beginning an epic poem in the middle of the action.

Inversion

Switching the customary order of elements in a sentence or phrase.

Loose sentence

A sentence that is complete before its end: Jack loved Barbara despite her irritating snorting laugh.

Periodic Sentence

A sentence that is not grammatically complete until it has reached it s final phrase: Despite Barbara's irritation at Jack, she loved him.

Masculine rhyme

A rhyme ending on the final stressed syllable (regular old rhyme)

Parenthetical phrase

A phrase set off by commas that interrupts the flow of a sentence with some commentary or added detail.

Pastoral

A poem set in tranquil nature or even more specifically, one about shepherds.

Plaint

A poem or speech expressing sorrow.