Poetry Definitions

Metrical Terms in AP Literature

Chapter 3: Definitions of Terms Used in AP Literature Exam

The following definitions capture various terms used in relation to the metrics of a passage on the AP Literature exam, including significant terms marked with an asterisk.

Alliteration
  • Definition: The repetition of similar or identical consonant sounds, normally at the beginning of words.
  • Example: "Guus never know pneumonia" illustrates alliteration as all four words start with the "n" sound.
Assonance
  • Definition: The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds within words.
  • Example: "A land laid waste with all its young men slain" repeats the identical "a" sound in the words "laid," "waste," and "slain."
Ballad Meter
  • Definition: A four-line stanza rhymed abcb, where lines one and three have four feet while lines two and four have three feet.
  • Example:
    • O mother, mother make my bed.
    • O make it soft and narrow.
    • Since my love died for me today,
    • I'll die for him tomorrow.
Blank Verse
  • Definition: Unrhymed iambic pentameter, often used in English drama and poetry.
  • Example:
    • "Men called him Mulciber, and how he fell
    • From heaven, they fabled, thrown by angry Jove
    • Sheer o'er the crystal battlements: from morn
    • To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve."
  • Note: Blank verse is the meter of most of Shakespeare's plays and Milton's Paradise Lost.
Dactyl
  • Definition: A metrical foot consisting of three syllables with one accented syllable followed by two unaccented syllables.
End-Stopped
  • Definition: A line that includes a pause at the end, typically marked by punctuation such as a period, comma, colon, semicolon, exclamation point, or question mark.
Free Verse
  • Definition: Poetry that does not adhere to a traditional meter but maintains a sense of rhythm.
  • Example: The poetry of Walt Whitman exemplifies free verse.
Heroic Couplet
  • Definition: Two end-stopped iambic pentameter lines that rhyme (aa, bb, cc), usually conveying a complete thought.
  • Example:
    • "When those fair suns shall set, as set they must,
    • And all those tresses shall be laid in dust,"
  • Note: Heroic couplets are often used in epics.
Hexameter
  • Definition: A line containing six feet.
Iamb
  • Definition: A two-syllable foot consisting of an unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable.
  • Note: The iamb is the most common foot in English poetry.
Internal Rhyme
  • Definition: Rhyme that occurs within a single line of poetry rather than at the end.
  • Example:
    • "God save thee, ancient Mariner!
    • From the friends that plague thee thus!—
    • Why look'st thou so?"
    • Explanation: The internal rhyme is found in "so" and "bow" within the same line.
Onomatopoeia
  • Definition: The use of words whose sound suggests their meaning.
  • Examples: Words such as "buzz," "hiss," and "honk" are onomatopoeic.
Pentameter
  • Definition: A line containing five feet.
  • Note: Iambic pentameter is the most commonly used meter in English verse written before 1950.
Rhyme Royal
  • Definition: A seven-line stanza of iambic pentameter with a rhyme scheme of ababbcc.
  • Note: It was popularly used by Chaucer and other medieval poets.
Sonnet
  • Definition: A poem usually composed of fourteen lines written in iambic pentameter.
  • Types:
    • Italian (Petrarchan) Sonnet: Rhyme scheme abba, abba, cde, cde.
    • English (Shakespearean) Sonnet: Rhyme scheme abab, cdcd, efef, gg.
Stanza
  • Definition: A grouping of three or more lines that are repeated, typically maintaining the same meter and rhyme scheme.
Terza Rima
  • Definition: A three-line stanza with a rhyme scheme of aba, bcb, cdc.
  • Example: Dante's Divine Comedy is written in terza rima.
Tetrameter
  • Definition: A line consisting of four feet.

Figurative Language or Figures of Speech

A way of conveying one idea by expressing another.

Motif
  • Definition: The repetition or variations of an image or idea throughout a work that develop the theme or character.
  • Examples: Themes such as light and dark, summer and winter, and appearance vs. reality. Objects like birds or colors can also serve as motifs.
Oxymoron
  • Definition: A form of paradox that combines opposing terms into a single expression.
  • Examples: Phrases such as "sweet sorrow," "bittersweet," "cold fire," and "happy dagger".
Paradox
  • Definition: A statement that seems contradictory yet reveals a truth.
  • Example: "Much madness is divinest sense."
  • Note: In Back to the Future, Marty cannot see himself and be himself.
Personification
  • Definition: The attribution of human characteristics to inanimate objects or abstract ideas.
  • Example: "The wind cried in the dark."
Simile
  • Definition: A comparison between two unlike things, explicitly using the words "like," "as," or "resembles."
  • Example: "The warrior fought like a lion."
Symbol
  • Definition: An object, person, place, or action that carries its own meaning while representing something broader.
  • Examples: The U.S. flag symbolizes democracy; colors can also have symbolic meanings (green - youth; red - passion).
  • Note: Seasons often symbolize changes in life: spring represents childhood; summer signifies youth; autumn refers to adulthood; winter denotes old age.
Synaesthesia
  • Definition: The description of one sensory experience in terms of another, such as colors described by sounds or sounds described by colors.
  • Example: "Blue note" refers to sound described by color, while "loud-sounding colors" can describe visual imagery.
Synecdoche
  • Definition: A form of metaphor where a part stands for the whole.
  • Examples:
    • "Canada played the United States in the Olympic hockey finals" (where Canada represents the Canadian team).
    • The phrase "the pot is boiling" where the container represents its contents.
    • "The quarterback tossed the pigskin." (the material stands for the object - a football).
    • "All hands on deck" signifies the whole person using the part (hands).
Syllepsis
  • Definition: The linking of one word with two other words in two distinctly different ways.
  • Example: "It was food for thought and for vultures," where the same word serves two contexts.
Understatement
  • Definition: The representation of something as significantly lesser than it is, a form of irony.
  • Example: "I could probably manage to survive on a salary of two million dollars per year."
Litote
  • Definition: A form of understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite.
  • Example: "Your meaning is not misunderstood."