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AP Literature List 4 Flashcards

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8004110445UnderstatementThe presentation or framing of something as less important, urgent, awful, good, powerful, and so on than it actually is, often for satiric or comical effect; the opposite of hyperbole, it is often used along with this technique, and for similar effect0
8004110446EssayA short academic composition. A piece of non-fiction writing that talks or discusses a specific topic.1
8004110447NovelA fictitious prose narrative of book length, typically representing character and action with some degree of realism.2
8004112062ProseA form of language that has no formal metrical structure. It applies a natural flow of speech, and ordinary grammatical structure rather than rhythmic structure, such as in the case of traditional poetry.3
8004112063AssonanceThe repetition of vowel sounds in a sequence of words.4
8004113474CadenceQuality of spoken text formed from combining the text's rhythm with the rise and fall in the inflection of the speaker's voice5
8004113475ConsonanceAn instance in which identical final consonant sounds in nearby words follow different vowel sounds.6
8004113476DirgeA song for the dead. Its tone is typically slow, heavy, depressed, and melancholy.7
8004115234ElegyA contemplative poem on death and mortality, often written for someone who has died8
8004115235EpicA long narrative poem, which is usually related to heroic deeds of a person of an unusual courage and unparalleled bravery. In order to depict this bravery and courage, the epic uses grandiose style.9
8004116700Free VerseA form of poetry that does not have a regular meter or rhyme scheme.10
8004118178In Media ResLatin for "in the middle of things," a technique in which a narrative begins in the middle of the action.11
8004118179MeterThe formal, regular organization of stressed and unstressed syllables, measured in feet. A foot is distinguished by the number of syllables it contains and how stress is placed on the syllables - stressed or unstressed. There are five typical feet in English verse: iamb, trochee, anapest, dactyl, and spondee. Some meters dictate the number of feet per line, the most common being tetrameter, pentameter, and hexameter, having four, five, and six feet, respectively.12
8004118180PentameterA line in verse or poetry that has five strong metrical feet or beats.13
8004120039RefrainA line, lines, or a stanza in a poem that repeat(s) at intervals.14
8004120040ApostropheA direct address to an abstraction (such as time), a thing (the wind), an animal, or an imaginary or absent person.15
8004120041StressRefers to the emphasis placed on certain syllables when speaking.16
8004122139AntithesisTwo opposite ideas are put together in a sentence to achieve a contrasting effect. Emphasizes the idea of contrast by parallel structures of the contrasted phrases or clauses.17
8004122140Complex SentenceA sentence containing an independent clause and one or more subordinate clauses.18
8004122141EthosRepresents credibility or an ethical appeal which involves persuasion by the character involved.19
8004123999SettingWhere and when a story takes place.20
8004124000RhetoricA technique of using language effectively and persuasively in spoken or written form. It is an art of discourse, which studies and employs various methods to convince, influence or please an audience.21
8004124001BalladFirst taking shape in the late Middle Ages, the ballad was a sung poem that recounted a dramatic story. Ballads were passed down orally from generation to generation. Arising in the romantic period, the literary ballad - a poem intentionally imitative of the ballad's style and structure - attempted to capture the sentiments of the common people in the same way the traditional ballad had.22
8004125611HaikuA haiku poem has three lines, where the first and last lines have five moras, while the middle line has seven. Moras are the Japanese equivalent of syllables.23
8004125612ScansionTo divide the poetry or a poetic form into feet by pointing out different syllables based on their lengths. Scansion is also known as "scanning," which is, in fact, a description of rhythms of poetry through break up of its lines or verses into feet, pointing the locations of accented and unaccented syllables, working out on meter, as well as counting the syllables.24

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