8612951593 | Archetype | an idealized model of a person, object, or concept from which similar instances are derived, copied, patterned, or emulated | 0 | |
8612955093 | Free Verse | poetry that does not conform to a regular meter or rhyme scheme | 1 | |
8612958789 | Interior Monolouge | writing that records the thinking that goes on inside a character's head; it is coherent as if character were talking | 2 | |
8612966258 | Blank Verse | poetry written without rhymes, but which retains a set metrical patter, usually iambic pentameter | 3 | |
8612970780 | Symbol | a person, place, thing, or event that has meaning in itself and that also stands for something more than itself | 4 | |
8612975342 | Satire | work that uses mockery, humor, and wit to criticize and cause change in human nature and institutions | 5 | |
8612981099 | In Medias Res | "in the midst of things" - standard of epic poetry where the action begins in the middle instead of at the beginning | 6 | |
8612989105 | Mood | the emotional tone or background that surrounds a scene | 7 | |
8612992330 | Apostrophe | calling out to an imaginary, dead, or absent person, or to a place or thing, or a personified abstract idea | 8 | |
8612997687 | Deus ex Machina | any artificial device or coincidence used to bring about a convenient and simple solution to a plot | 9 | |
8613001006 | Allusion | reference to someone or something that is known from history, literature, religion, politics, sports, science, or another branch of culture | 10 | |
8613005668 | Antagonist | opponent who struggles against or blocks the hero, or protagonist, in a story | 11 | |
8613008305 | Epigraph | a quotation or aphorism at the beginning of a literary work suggestive of the theme | 12 | |
8613011774 | Local Color | a term applied to fiction or poetry which tends to place special emphasis on a particular setting, including its customs, clothing, dialect, and landscape | 13 | |
8613023290 | Enjambment | the continuation of the sense and, therefore, the grammatical construction of a sentence beyond the end of a line of poetry | 14 | |
8613028235 | Antihero | central character who lacks all the qualities traditionally associated with heroes; may lack courage, grace, intelligence, or moral scruples | 15 | |
8613037942 | Consonance | in poetry, when words appearing at the ends of two or more verses have similar final consonant sounds but have final vowel sounds that differ, as with "stuff" and "off" | 16 | |
8613046925 | Farce | a type of comedy in which ridiculous and often stereotyped characters are involved in silly, for-fetched situations | 17 | |
8613053362 | Dramatic Irony | an occasion in a play, film, or other work in which a character's words or actions convey a meaning unperceived by the character by understood by the audience | 18 | |
8613059548 | Litotes | a form of understatement in which the positive form is emphasizes through the negation of a negative form; ex: "Are you aware, Mrs. Bueller, that Ferris does not have what we consider to be an exemplary attendance record?" | 19 | |
8613068732 | Dialect | a way of speaking that is characteristic of a certain social group or of the inhabitants of certain geographical area | 20 | |
8613078351 | Alliteration | repetition of the same or similar consonant sounds at the beginning of words that are close together; Example: "The soul selects her own society" | 21 | |
8613083405 | Onomatopoeia | the use of words whose sounds echo their sense | 22 | |
8613085329 | Polysyndeton | sentence which uses a conjunction with NO commas to separate the items in a series; ex "X and Y and Z" | 23 | |
8613091654 | Internal Rhyme | rhyme within a line of poetry instead of at the end | 24 | |
8613096563 | Anticlimax | the intentional use of fancy language to describe the trivial or commonplace, or a sudden transition from a significant thought to a trivial one in order to achieve a humorous or satiric effect | 25 | |
8613103574 | Euphemism | the substitution of a comfortable or inoffensive expression to replace one that might offend or suggest something unpleasant | 26 | |
8613108906 | Verbal Irony | when the intended meaning of a statement differs from the apparent meaning | 27 | |
8613111602 | Metaphor | a figure of speech that makes a comparison between tow unlike things WITHOUT the use of such specific words of comparison as like, as, than, or resembles | 28 | |
8613116994 | Chiasmus | in poetry, a type of rhetorical balance in which the second part is syntactically balances against the first, but with the parts reversed; example: "flowers are lovely, love is flowerlike" | 29 | |
8613123918 | Personification | a figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, or attitudes | 30 | |
8613128304 | Motif | a recurring image, word, phrase, action, idea, object, or situation used throughout a work (or in several works by one author), unifying the work by trying the current situation to previous ones, or new ideas to the theme | 31 | |
8613134576 | Soliloquy | a long speech made by a character in a play while no other characters are on stage | 32 | |
8613137373 | Euphony | harmony or beauty of sound which provided a pleasing effect to the ear, usually sought-for in poetry for effect | 33 | |
8613141132 | Ambiguity | deliberately suggesting two or more different, and sometimes conflicting, meanings in a work | 34 | |
8613145656 | Tone | the attitude a writer takes toward the subject of a work, the characters in it, or the audience, revealed through diction, figurative language, and organization | 35 | |
8613151831 | Hyperbole | a figure of speech that uses an incredible exaggeration or overstatement, for effect; "If I told you once, I've told you a million times..." | 36 | |
8613160206 | Simile | a figure of speech that makes an explicitly comparison between two unlike things, using words such as like, as, than, or resembles | 37 | |
8613163378 | Kenning | a compound poetic phrase substituted for the usual name of a person or thing; ex. "Whale Road" for ocean | 38 | |
8613168265 | Juxtaposition | poetic and rhetorical device in which normally unassociated ides, words, or phrases are placed next to one another, creating an effect of surprise and wit | 39 | |
8613176727 | Cacophony | unpleasant sounds in the jarring juxtaposition of harsh letter or syllables which are grating to the ear, usually inadvertent, but sometimes deliberately used in poetry for effect | 40 | |
8613181045 | Foreshadowing | the use of hints and clues to suggest what will happen later in a plot | 41 | |
8613186467 | Catharsis | a sudden emotional breakdown or climax that consists of overwhelming feelings of great pity, sorrow, or laughter, or any extreme change in emotion | 42 | |
8613189987 | Synechdoche | a figure of speech in which a part represents the whole; ex. "If you don't drive properly, you will lose your wheels" | 43 | |
8613195657 | Diction | the choice of words, phrases, sentence structure, and figurative language in literary work; the manner or mode of verbal expression, particularly with regard to clarity and accuracy | 44 | |
8613207076 | Asyndeton | commas used without conjunction to separate a series of words, thus exphasizing the parts equally: instead of X, Y, and Z ... the writer uses X, Y, Z | 45 | |
8613213955 | Cliche | a word or phrase, often a figure of speech, that has become lifeless because of overuse | 46 | |
8613221460 | Anaphora | repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of two or more sentences in a row | 47 | |
8613223798 | Allegory | story or poem in which character, settings, and events stand for other people or events or for abstract ideas or qualities | 48 | |
8613228837 | Imagery | the use of language to evoke a picture or a concrete sensation of a person, a thing, a place, or an experience | 49 | |
8613232436 | Hubris | excessive pride or ambition that leads to a character's downfall | 50 | |
8613235781 | Tragic Flaw | in a tragedy, the quality within the hero or heroine which leads to his or her downfall | 51 | |
8613242288 | 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 | 52 | |
8613247293 | Metonyme | a figure of speech in which a person, place, or thing, is referred to by something closely associated with it; "We requested from the crown support for our petition" | 53 | |
8613255454 | Stream of Conciousness | a style of writing that portrays the inner (often chaotic) workings of a character's mind | 54 | |
8613259753 | Foil | a character who acts as contrast to another character | 55 | |
8613261914 | Assonance | the repetition of similar vowel sounds followed by different consonant sounds especially in words that are together; example: "Do not go gentle into that good night" | 56 | |
8613269457 | Paradox | a statement which contains seemingly contradictory element or appears contrary to common sense, yet can be seen as true when viewed from another angle; ex. "Damn with faint praise" | 57 | |
8613276564 | Oxymoron | a figure of speech the combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase; ex. "Jumbo shrimp" | 58 | |
8613281188 | Aside | a comment made by a stage performer that is intended to be heard by the audience by supposedly not by other characters | 59 | |
8613285849 | Couplet | two consecutive rhyming lines of poetry | 60 | |
8613288140 | Genre | a category of literary work which may refer to both the content of a given work - tragedy, comedy, pastoral - and to its form, such as poetry, novel, or drama; this term also refers to types of popular literature, as in science fiction or detective story | 61 | |
8613300629 | Frame Narrative | a story within a story within sometimes yet another story, as in, for example, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein or Heart of Darkness | 62 | |
8613307420 | Suspension of Disbelief | a willingness of a reader or viewer to ignore minor inconsistencies or unbelievable behavior so as to enjoy a work of fiction | 63 | |
8613311342 | Persona | the narrator in a non first-person novel; the author's creation - the voice "through which the author speaks" | 64 | |
8613317623 | Parody | a work that makes fun of another work by imitation some aspect of the writer's style | 65 | |
8613321660 | Exposition | in drama, the presentation of essential information regarding what has occurred prior to the beginning of the play | 66 | |
8613326866 | Protagonist | the central character in a story, the one who initiates or drives the action | 67 | |
8613330311 | Meter | the repetition of sound patterns that creates a rhythm in poetry | 68 | |
8613333592 | Pun | a "play on words" based on the multiple meanings of a single word or on words that sound alike but mean different things | 69 | |
8613337525 | Quatrain | a poem consisting of four lines, or four lines of a poem that can be considered as a unit | 70 |
AP Literature Poetry Terms Flashcards
Primary tabs
Need Help?
We hope your visit has been a productive one. If you're having any problems, or would like to give some feedback, we'd love to hear from you.
For general help, questions, and suggestions, try our dedicated support forums.
If you need to contact the Course-Notes.Org web experience team, please use our contact form.
Need Notes?
While we strive to provide the most comprehensive notes for as many high school textbooks as possible, there are certainly going to be some that we miss. Drop us a note and let us know which textbooks you need. Be sure to include which edition of the textbook you are using! If we see enough demand, we'll do whatever we can to get those notes up on the site for you!