Ap Lit Poetry Terms

Alliteration

The repetition of two or more initial sounds within a line

Allusion

A passing reference to somthing famous

Apostrophe

A form of personification in which the absent or dead persons, concepts or ideas.

Assonance

Repetition of two or more vowel sounds within a line

Analogy

A comparison of two things, alike in certain aspects- a simile is an expressed ______; a methaphor is an implied one

Allegory

A form of extended metaphor in which objects, persons, and actions in a narrative are equated with meanings that lie outside the narrative itself

Blank verse

Unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter

Cacophony

The use of Inharmonious sounds in close conjunction for effect; opposite of euphony

Cacophonous

Involving or producing a harsh, discordant mixture of sounds

Couplet

2 lines of poetry that go together

Conceit

Very elaborate comparisons between unlikely objects, often spans an entire text or much of it

Consonance

The repetition of two or more consonant sounds within a line

Diction

Word Choice

Dramatic Monologue

A lyric poem in which the speaker addresses himself to persons around him; his speech deals with a dramatic moment in his life and manifests his character

Dramatic situation

The circumstances of the speaker

Epic

A long, dignified narrative poem which gives the account of a hero important to his nation or race

Elegy

A poem of lament, meditating on the death of an individual

Enjambment

A run-on line, one continuing into the next without a grammatical break

Free Verse

Unrhymed lines without regular rhythm

Foot

Most basic unit of a poem’s meter. Its a combination of stressed and unstressed syllables

Haiku

Japanese verse in three lines of five, seven, and five syllables

Half rhyme

Imperfect, approximate rhyme

Hyperbole

Exaggeration

Iambic Pentameter

A line of verse with five metrical feet, each consisting of one short syllable followed by one long syllable

Internal Rhyme

Rhyme contained within a line of verse

Juxtaposition

A contrast

Metaphor

Comparison of two unlike things by CALLING one thing the other

Metric Pattern

The accents of the syllables in the words fall at regular intervals

Meter

The beat or rhythm of poetic feet

Euphemism

allows people to skirt around unpleasant things while they talk or write, and minimize the discomfort of talking about it

Metonymy

Representing something by the name of another thing closely associated with it

Neologism

A word concocted for deliberate effect, sometimes called a coined word or a portmanteau word

Narrative

A non dramatic poem which tells a story or presents a narrative, whether simple or complex, long or short

Ode

Elaborate lyric verse which deals seriously with a dignified theme, in the form of an address to a particular subject often elevated in style or manner and written in varied or irregular meter

Onomatopoeia

The use of words in which the sounds seem to resemble the sounds they describe

Oxymoron

A form of paradox that combines a pair of contrary terms into a single expression, it usually serves the purpose of shocking or surprising the reader into awarness; an antithesis which brings together two sharply contradictory terms “loving hate“

Paradox

A situation or action or feeling that appears to be contradictory but on inspection turns out to be true or at least to make sense

Persona

the '“character” the writer assumes for the purpose of the work

Personification

Giving human animate qualities to nonhuman things - - creates power

Rhythm

Recurring pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables and pauses; sound device based upon pattern

Rhyme scheme

Pattern of rhymes within a unit of verse; in analysis, each end rhyme-sound is represented by a letter

Simile

Comparison of unlike things using like or as

Sonnet

14 lines iambic pentameter

Synecdoche

Substitution of part for the whole object or idea or whole for the part

Syllable

1 beat in a word

Syntax

The ordering of words into a particular pattern

Synesthesia

blending different types of sensory ideas into one

Understatement

The opposite of hyperbole. It is a kind of irony that deliberately represents something as being much less than it really is

Verse

Another word for poetry