AP Literature Poetic Devices

strategies and terms (verses, sentence levels & narratives, etc.)

Anadiplosis

When the end of one line is repeated to begin the next. (Ex: Wherein I die, not live; for life is straight, Straight as a line, and ever tends to Thee).

Alliteration

Words that start with the same letter or sound.

Anaphora

Repeating a word or phrase at the beginning of a series of clauses or sentences.

Anastrophe

Sentence is reversed/inverted of its normal order (not repeated though).

Asynartete

Poem or stanza with two different meters.

Asyndeton

A sentence that leaves out a conjunction, so it fits the poem’s meter.

Assonance

Repeated vowel sounds.

Bildungsroman

Coming of age story.

Chiasmus

Words or concepts repeated, purposefully inverted (Ex: Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.)

Congeries

Creating a list to emphasize a point or irony (Ex: Apart from better sanitation and medicine and education and irrigation and public health and roads and a freshwater system and baths and public order, what have the Romans done for us?)

Conceit

Extended metaphor used by metaphysical poets.

Consonance

Repeated consonant sounds.

Denouement

Story’s resolution.

Didactic

Adjective describing types of literature, intended to impart a moral lesson.

Enallage

Substituting one grammatical form for another (Ex: She is to be wived.)

Epistrophe

Word or phrase repeated at the sentence’s end.

Epic Similie

Similie developed & explained across series of lines.

Epithet

A nickname used as an invective.

Epigram

Pithy saying or remark (Ex: An apple a day keeps the doctor away.)

Epigraph

Poem, quote, or sentence at the beginning of a piece that reveals theme/sets a tone.

Epiphany

Sudden realization or moment of clarity.

Epizeuxis

Repeating words of phrases in immediate succession in a sentence.

Erotesis

Question that expects an affirmative or negative response.

English/Shakespearian Sonnet

14 lines divided into 3 quatrains + a couplet

Enjambent

Continuation without a pause beyond the end (Ex: A sentence has a line brain, but continues)

Hyperbaton

Inversion of words differing from how they’re normally arranged (Ex: Object there was none.)

Irony

Signifying the opposite (Verbal = Opposite of what’s intended, Situational = Contrast from expected vs happened, Dramatic = reader knows more than characters)

Isocolon

2+ phrases have the same structure, rhythm, length (Ex: Veni, vidi, vici.)

Jeremiad

Long mournful, complaint or lamentation.

Joycean prose

Stream of consciousness, laden with wordplay

Kafkaesque

Surreal, nightmarish milieu producing disorder and resignation (concept from Franz Kafka)

Lacuna

Large gap or omission, sometimes used to indicate absense

Litotes

Understatement used to create ironic sentiment

Malapropism

Mistake of using one word to replace a similar sounding, yet more appropriate one (Ex: I am not to be truffled with.)

Metonymy

Term used for something similar to what’s intended

Mise en abyme

Story inside a story (framed)

Motif

Repeated element supporting a work’s theme

Onomatopoeia

Words sounding like what they’re referring (Ex: Click, clack, moo.)

Oxymoron

Two contradictory words describing one thing (Ex: Parting is such sweet sorrow.)

Parallelism

Similar ideas and words are arranged harmoniously to create a parallel (Ex: One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.)

Peripeteia

Sudden reversal of fortunes

Petrarchan Sonnet

14 lines divided into an octave and sestet

Polysyndeton

Repeating conjunctions in rapid succession (Ex: We have ships and men and money.)

Portmanteau

Two words combine to form a new one, referring to a single concept

Repetition

Repeating a word/phrase

Rhyme

Effect of having words with similar vowel sounds (Slant = Similar but not identical, Feminine = Stressed syllables followed by unstressed, Internal = Words in middle of lines, Eye = Similar spelling but not sound, Masculine = Final stressed syllable, Rich = Produced with vowels and consonants).

Synecdoche

Term used to represent an entirity

Tmesis

Separating a compound word with intervening words (Ex: Shove it back any-old-where in the pile:)

Tautology

Sentence/paragraph repeats a word or phrase, with the same idea twice (Ex: But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping, And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door.)

Telegraphic Sentence

Five or less words

Volta

“Turn” in a poem, tone suddenly shifts

Zeugma

Word applies to two others in different senses (Ex: John and his license expired last week.)

Light Verse

Poetry about trivial, amusing, unimportant things.

Free Verse

NO rules, but still contains some structure.

Blank Verse

Contains meter, lacks rhyme.

Alliterative Verse

Organizing principle for lines in alliteration.

Rhyming Verse

Meter & rhyme.

Prose

Not in verse, structure doesn’t matter. Book writing.

Foot

Unit of syllables in a poem.

Iamb

Unstressed, stressed.

Trochee

Stressed, unstressed.

Spondee

Stressed, stressed.

Common Meter

Line of iambic followed by a line of iambic trimeter.

Meter Lengths

Three feet = Trimeter. Four feet = Tetrameter. Five feet = Pentameter. Six feet = Hexameter. Seven feet = Heptameter. Eight feet= Octameter.

Couplet

Pairing of two lines.

Quatrain

Pairing of four lines.

Allegory

Narrative with characters & plots depicting abstract ideas/themes.

Allusion

Passing or indirect descriptive reference

Anachronism

Something happens or attributed to a different era than what actually existed. (Ex: Cassius said the clock struck three, but mechanical clocks weren’t invented yet).

Anthropomorphism

Literally applying human traits or qualities to non-human things.

Aphorism

Universally accepted truth in a pithy way (Ex: To err is human, to forgive divine)

Archetype

“Universal symbol” bringing familiarity and context to a story. Represents feeling and situations across cultures/time periods.

Colloquialism

Casual and informal language in writing, including slang

Deus Ex Machina

Impossible situation solved by appearance of an unexpected character/action/event

Euphemism

Indirect “polite” way of describing something too inappropriate or awkward to address directly

Exposition

Narrative provides background information in order to help reader understand what’s happening.

Flashback

Cut to previous events split up present-day scenes in a story.

Foreshadowing

Author hints at events yet to come.

Frame story

Story’s part that “frames” another

Hyperbole

Exaggerated statement emphasizes significance of statement’s actual meaning.

Imagery

Readers’ senses through highly descriptive language

In Media Res

“In the midst of things,” beginning a story without context.

Juxtaposition

Places dissimilar concepts side by side, profound contrast highlights their differences

Paradox

Statement that contradicts itself yet true (Ex: War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength.)

Personification

Human traits applied to non-human things (metaphorically)

Point of View

Mode of narration in a story

Satire

Making fun of some aspect of human nature or society

Soliloquy

Character speaking their thoughts aloud to themselves

Tone

Writer’s attitude towards the subject

Zoomorphism

Animal traits and assigning them to something not an animal

Cliche

Idea used so often, it becomes unoriginal

Idiom

Uses figurative language whose meaning differs from what’s actually said (Ex: It’s raining cats and dogs)

Metonymy

Serves as a synonym and symbolizes things (Ex: “The crown” representing the monarchy).

Non Sequitur

Statements that don’t logically follow what precedes them, absurd and lend humor

Rhetorical Question

Asked to create an effect ratherthan to solicit an answer