AP Literature Poetry Terms 21-40 AHS

Euphemism

A figure of speech using indirection to avoid offensive bluntness, such as “deceased” for “dead” or “remains” for “corpse”.

Figurative Language

Writing that uses figures of speech (as opposed to literal language or that which is actual or specifically denoted) such as metaphor, simile, and irony. Figurative language uses words to mean something other than their literal meaning; it is the language of comparison. For example, “The black bat night has flown” is figurative, with the metaphor comparing night and a bat. “Night is over” says the same thing without figurative language. No real bat is or has been on the scene, but night is like a bat because it is dark.

Free Verse

Poetry which is not written in a traditional meter but is still rhythmical. The poetry of Walt Whitman is perhaps the best known example of free verse.

Grotesque

Characterized by distortions or incongruities. The fiction of Poe or Flannery O’Connor is often described as grotesque.

Hyperbole

Deliberate exaggeration, overstatement. As a rule, hyperbole is self-conscious, without the intention of being accepted literally. “The strongest man in the world” or “a diamond as big as the Ritz” are hyperbolic.

Lamb

A two-syllable foot with an unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable. The iamb is the most common foot in English poetry.

Imagery

The images of a literary work; the sensory details of a work; the figurative language of a work. Imagery has several definitions, but the two that are paramount are the visual, auditory, or tactile images evoked by the words of a literary work or the images that figurative language evokes. When an AP question asks you to discuss the imagery of a work, you should look especially at the sensory details and the metaphors and similes of a passage. Some diction is also imagery but not all diction evokes sensory responses.

Imperative

The mood of a verb that gives an order. “Eat your spinach” uses an imperative verb.

Internal Rhyme

Rhyme that occurs within a line, rather than at the end.
Example:

“God save thee, ancient Mariner!

From the fiends that plague thee thus!

Why look’st thou so?” With my crossbow

I shot the Albatross

Line three contains the internal rhyme of “so” and “bow”

Irony

A figure of speech in which intent and actual meaning differ characteristically praise for blame or blame for praise; a pattern of words that turn away from a direct statement of its own obvious meaning. The term irony implies a discrepancy. In verbal irony (saying the opposite of what one means), the discrepancy is between statement and meaning. Sometimes, irony may simply understate, as in “Men have died from time to time…” When Mr. Bennet, who loathes Wickham, says he is perhaps his “favorite” son-in-law, he is using irony.

Jargon

The special language of a profession or group. The term jargon usually has negative associations, with the implication that jargon is evasive, tedious, and unintelligible to outsiders.

Literal

Not figurative; matter of fact or concrete

Litotes

A form of understatement in which something is affirmed by stating the negative of its opposite. For example “She was not a bad singer.”.

Lyrical

Songlike; characterized by emotion, subjectivity, and imagination..

Metaphor

A figurative use of language in which a comparison is expressed without the use of a comparative term like “as”, “like”, or “than”.

Metonymy

A figurative of speech characterized by the substitution of a term naming an object closely associated with the word for the word itself. For example, the King is often referred to as “the crown”

Modify

To restrict or limit in meaning. In the phrase “large, shaggy dog” the two adjectives modify the noun, in the phrase “very, shaggy dog” the adverb “very” modifies the adjective “shaggy”, which modifies the noun “dog”

Narrative Techniques

The methods involved in telling a story, the procedures used by a writer of stories or accounts. Narrative techniques is a general term (like “devices” or “resources of language”) which asks you to discuss the procedures used in telling of a story. Examples of the techniques you might use are a point of view, manipulation of time, dialogue, or interior monologue.

Omniscient Point of View

The vantage point of a story in which the narrator can know, see, and report whatever he/she chooses. The narrator is free to describe the thoughts of any of the characters, to skip about in time or place, or to speak directly to the reader. Most of the novels of Austen, Dickens, or Hardy employ the omniscient point of view.

Onomatopoeia

The use of words whose sound suggests their meaning. Examples are “buzz”, “hiss”, “honk”.