AP Lit Word Wednesday Vocab #6

anastrophe

inversion of the usual, normal, or logical order of the parts of a sentence. Purpose is rhythm or emphasis or euphony. It is a fancy word for inversion.

aphorism

brief, cleverly worded statement that makes a wise observation about life, or of a principle or accepted general truth. 

apostrophe

calling out to an imaginary, dead, or absent person, or to a place or thing, or a personified abstract idea.

chiasmus

in poetry, a type of rhetorical balance in which the second part is syntactically balanced against the first, but with the parts reversed. Coleridge: “Flowers are lovely, love is flowerlike.”

conceit

 an elaborate metaphor that compares two things that are startlingly different. Often an extended metaphor.

epistrophe

Device of repetition in which the same expression (single word or phrase) is repeated at the end of two or more lines, clauses, or sentences (it is the opposite of anaphora). 

epithet

an adjective or adjective phrase applied to a person or thing that is frequently used to emphasize a characteristic quality. “Father of our country” and “the great Emancipator” are examples. 

parody

 a work that makes fun of another work by imitating some aspect of the writer’s style. 

quatrain

a poem consisting of four lines, or four lines of a poem that can be considered as a unit.  

refrain

a word, phrase, line, or group of lines that is repeated, for effect, several times in a poem.