AP Lit Vocab Quiz 2

Decorum

a character's speech that must be styled according to their social station and the occasion

Diction

The author's choice of words

Dirge

A song for the dead. Typically slow, heavy, and melancholic

Dissonance

The grating of incompatible sounds

Doggerel

A crude, simplistic verse, often in sing-song rhyme

Dramatic Irony

When the audience knows something that the characters in the drama don't

Dramatic Monologue

When a single speaker in literature says something to a silent audience

Elegy

A poem on death in general. Often use the recent death of a loved one as a start, also memorialize dead people

Elements

The basic techniques of each genre of literature (Short story: characters, plot, setting, theme, etc.)

enjambment

the continuation of a syntactic unit from one line of verse into the next line without a pause

Epic

A very long narrative poem on a serious theme in a dignified style. Typically deals with glorious or profound subject matter. (War, heroic journey, fall of man)

epitaph

Lines that commemorate the dead at their burial place.

euphemism

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

Euphony

When sounds blend harmoniously

explicit

Directly and clearly stated

Farce

In modern terms: Extremely broad humor
In past terms: A funny play, a comedy

Feminine Rhyme

Lines rhymed by their final two syllables. Last two syllables go stressed-unstressed

First person narrator

Narrator who is a character in the story and tells the tale from their perspective.

Foil

A secondary character used to highlight qualities in the main character through contrast

Foot

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

Foreshadowing

An event or statement that suggests a larger, more important event comes later.

Free Verse

Poetry written without a regular rhyme scheme or metrical pattern

Genre

A sub-category of literature

Gothic

The sensibility derived from novels of this genre. (gloomy castles on stormy nights, paintings with eyes that follow you)

Hubris

the excessive pride or ambition that leads to a character's downfall

hyperbole

exaggeration or deliberate overstatement

Implicit

Suggests and implies something, but never directly says it

In media res

When a story begins in the middle of the action, Latin for "in the midst of things"

interior monologue

writing that records the mental talking that goes on inside a character's head, more coherent speech than stream of consciousness. Used in novels and poetry, not dramatic literature

Inversion

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

Irony

A statement whose meaning slides against the literal meaning of the words

Lament

A poem of sadness or grief over the death of a loved one or over some other intense loss

Lampoon

A satire

Loose sentence

A sentence that is grammatically complete before its end

Lyric

A type of poetry that explores the poet's personal interpretation of and feelings about the world.

Masculine Rhyme

A rhyme ending on the final stressed syllable

Meaning

What is important. Can be literal and emotional

Melodrama

Overly dramatic

Metaphor

Comparison that says one thing is another

Syntax

The chosen order of words in a sentence

Periodic Sentence

A sentence that is not grammatically complete until its end

Simile

A softened metaphor, usually uses like or as