A master list of literary terms to study for the Ap exam. This list includes 86 terms from the first half of the 2011-12 school year.
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| 292270498 | Ode | A typically lyrical verse written in praise of, or dedicated to someone or something which captures the poet's interest or serves as an inspiration for the piece. Ex: Ode on a Grecian Urn, Keats | |
| 292270499 | Elegy | A mournful, melancholic or plaintive poem, especially a funeral song or a lament for the dead. Ex: O Captain! My Captain!, Whitman | |
| 292270500 | Lyric | A genre of poetry that expresses personal and emotional feelings. Ex: She dealt Her pretty Words like Blades-, Dickinson | |
| 292270501 | Narrative | Poetry that has a plot. Ex: The Author of Her Book, Bradstreet | |
| 292270502 | Dramatic | Verse that occurs in a dramatic work, such as a play, composed in poetic form. Ex: A Midsummer's Night Dream, Shakespeare | |
| 292270503 | Persona | A social role or a character played by an actor. Ex: Song of Myself, Whitman | |
| 292270504 | Metaphor | A literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea. Ex: I could not stop for Death, Dickinson | |
| 292270505 | Dimeter | A line of verse with two feet Ex: "A Wooden way" [After great pain, a formal feeling comes—] by Emily Dickinson | |
| 292270506 | Trimeter | A line of verse with three feet Ex: "The whiskey on your breath" My Papa's Waltz by Theodore Roethke | |
| 292270507 | Tetrameter | A line of verse with four feet Ex: "The golf links lie so near the mill" [The golf links lie so near the mill] by Sarah Cleghorn | |
| 292270508 | Pentameter | A line of verse with five feet Ex: "with her hemline. Chairman Mao put forward" Of Time and the Line by Charles Bernstein | |
| 292270509 | Hexameter | A line of verse with six feet Ex: "they are like great runners: they know they are alone" Sex without Love by Sharon Olds | |
| 292270510 | Iamb(ic) | A metrical foot comprising of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable [ u/ ] Ex: "he wouldn't" Lies by Martha Collins | |
| 292270511 | Troche(aic) | A metrical foot comprising of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable [ / u ] Ex: "Into it," The Beautiful Changes by Richard Wilbur | |
| 292270512 | Simile | A figure of speech that directly compares two different things, usually by employing the words "like" or "as". Ex: "Your teeth are like stars; They come out at night. They come back at dawn When they're ready to bite." Rogers | |
| 292270513 | Personification | Any attribution of human characteristics (or characteristics assumed to belong only to humans) to animals, non-living things, phenomena, material states, objects or abstract concepts, such as organizations, governments, spirits or deities. Ex: "Death be not Proud" Donne | |
| 292270514 | Symbol | Something that represents an idea, a physical entity or a process but is distinct from it in order to communicate meaning. Ex: The Captain in "O Captain! My Captain!" Whitman | |
| 292270515 | Couplet | A pair of lines of meter in poetry. It usually consists of two lines that rhyme and have the same meter. Ex: "True wit is nature to advantage dress'd; What oft was thought, but ne'er so well express'd." Pope | |
| 292270516 | Tercet | It is composed of three lines of poetry, forming a stanza or a complete poem. Ex: "Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red. Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou, Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed." Shelley | |
| 292270517 | Quatrain | A stanza, or a complete poem, consisting of four lines of verse. Ex: "The Curfew tolls the knell of parting day, The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea, The plowman homeward plods his weary way, And leaves the world to darkness and to me." Gray | |
| 292270518 | Cinquain | A class of poetic forms that employ a 5-line pattern. Ex: "Listen... With faint dry sound, Like steps of passing ghosts, The leaves, frost-crisp'd, break from the trees And fall." Crapsey | |
| 292270519 | Anapest(ic) | Two unaccented syllables followed by one stressed syllable. Ex: The word Seventeen. [ u u / ] | |
| 292270520 | Dactyll(ic) | One stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables. Ex: The word Poetry. [ / u u ] | |
| 292270521 | Litotes | The intentional understatement of something for emphasis. Ex: Not unnatractive, as opposed to attractive. | |
| 292270522 | Hyperbole | The use of exaggeration as a rhetorical device. Ex: (Whitman 30) The earth, that is sufficient, I do not want the constellations any nearer, I know very well where they are..." | |
| 292270523 | Imagery | Figurative description or illustration. Ex:(Whitman 31) "You flagg'd walks of the cities! you strong curbs at the edges! You ferries! you planks and posts of wharves! you timber-lined sides! you distant Ships!" | |
| 292270524 | Alliteration | The repetition of a particular sound: Ex: (Whitman 31) "You air...You objects...You light...You paths...You glagg'd...You gerries///you planks...you timber...you distant" | |
| 292270525 | Assonance | The repetition of vowel sounds to create internal rhyming within phrases or sentences, and together with alliteration and consonance serves as one of the building blocks of verse. Ex: Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn (Song of Myself by Walt Whitman) | |
| 292270526 | Consonace | A stylistic device characterized by the repetition of the same consonant two or more times in short succession. Ex: And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain (The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe) | |
| 292270527 | Diction | In its original, primary meaning, this refers to the writer's or the speaker's distinctive vocabulary choices and style of expression in a poem or story. Ex: A narrow fellow in the grass ... Without a tighter breathing, And zero at the bone. (A Narrow Fellow in the Grass by Emily Dickinson) | |
| 292270528 | Tone | A literary technique that is a part of composition, which encompasses the attitudes toward the subject and toward the audience implied in a literary work. Ex: I'm going out to clean the pasture spring; (light, informing tone) (By Robert Frost) | |
| 292270529 | Allusion | A figure of speech that makes a reference to, or representation of, people, places, events, literary work, myths, or works of art, either directly or by implication. Ex: "I was not born in a manger. I was actually born on Krypton and sent here by my father, Jor-el, to save the Planet Earth." (Barack Obama) | |
| 292270530 | Refrain | The line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse, usually the last line in a stanze (or sometimes the first line); the "chorus" of a song. Ex: Meant in croaking `Nevermore.'... She shall press, ah, nevermore!...Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'... Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'...(The Raven) | |
| 293114164 | Near/ slant/ Approx. rhyme | consonance (repetition of same consonance two or more times in succession) on the final words involved. Ex: Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul, And sings the tune without the words, And never stops at all. | |
| 293114165 | Anaphora | rhetorical device that consists of repeating a sequence of words at the beginning and ending, thereby lending emphasis. Ex: Song of Myself | |
| 293114166 | Cataloging | to list or make an itemized list of Ex: Anything by Whitman | |
| 293114167 | Free Verse | form of poetry that refrains from consistent meter pattern, rhyme, or any musical pattern. Ex: Romeo & Juliet | |
| 293114168 | Blank Verse | poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter (metrical line in traditional verse and verse drama). Ex: Whitman | |
| 293114169 | Rhetorical Question | a figure of speech in the form of a question posed for its persuasive effect without the expectation of a reply Ex: I 'M nobody! Who are you? Are you nobody, too? Then there 's a pair of us—don't tell! They 'd banish us, you know. -Dickinson | |
| 293114170 | Analogy | a process of transferring information or meaning from a particular subject to another particular subject; a linguistic expression corresponding to this process; an inference or argument from one particular thing to another particular thing; comparison Ex: The brain is just the weight of God, For, lift them, pound for pound And they will differ, if they do, As syllable from sound. -Dickinson | |
| 293114171 | Anecdote | a short, amusing, or interesting story about a real incident or person; a personal tale told by the speaker or character in a literary work; purpose is to reveal a deeper truth or character trait/flaw Example: Twain- Boy pointed gun at grandmother, but she was fine in the end | |
| 293114172 | Aphorism | an original thought, spoken or written in a concise and memorable form Ex: "A promise not to change is a promise not to grow" | |
| 293114173 | Ballad/Common/Hymn meter | a poetic meter consisting of four lines which alternate between iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter. Example: Emily Dickinson #712 Because I could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me; The Carriage held but just Ourselves And Immortality. | |
| 293114174 | Enjambment | the breaking of a phrase, clause, or sentence by the end of a line or between two verses (dashes) Example: Emily Dickinson poem #632 "The Brain - is wider than the Sky - For - put them side by side - The one the other will contain" | |
| 293329673 | Parody | a composition mocking/imitating the serious manner and characteristic features of a particular/original work. ex: "ACLU Announces Lawsuit against Santa Claus" -David Bibb | |
| 293329674 | Burlesque | a form of comedy characterized by ridiculous exaggeration or distortion. ex: "Thank You, Thank You, Thank You" -Zev Borow. (Trivializes the importance of acceptance speeches such as those of the Oscars and the Nobel Prize) | |
| 293329675 | Verbal Irony | a statement in which the speaker states something entirely different than what he is really expressing. ex: "Advice to Youth" -Mark Twain | |
| 293329676 | Juxtaposition | placing two things beside each other;the contrast between the two creates a third meaning. ex: "teenage affluenza" video | |
| 293329677 | Parallelism | a balance of two or more similar words, phrases, or clauses. ex: "Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country" - JFK | |
| 293329678 | Loose Sentence | A sentence in which the main idea is followed by successive details in the form of modifying clauses or phrases. Ex. Due to snowy conditions, the principal announced an early release, and students were jubilant, high-fiving, shouting about sleds and video games, wishing the clock would go faster. | |
| 293329679 | Periodic Sentence | A sentence in which the main idea or most important information is not revealed until the end of the sentence Ex: That morning, after a longer than normal bus ride on icy roads, we made it safely to school. | |
| 293329680 | Double Entendre | A word or phrase that has a double meaning. Example: Include Your Children When Baking Cookies | |
| 293329681 | Caricature | A portrait that exaggerates or distorts the essence of a person, animal or object to create an easily identifiable visual likeness Example: A caricature of President Obama, emphasizing his big ears | |
| 293329682 | Undercutting | To start a sentence or statement off with a usually serious topic, and at the end, the topic suddenly changes to something humorous or very different Example: (Twain's Advice to the Young) "If a person offend you, and you are in doubt as to whether it was intentional or not, do not resort to extreme measures; simply watch your chance and hit him with a brick." | |
| 293329683 | Inversion | To turn something upside down or inside out Example: (Twain's Advice to the Young) "For the history of our race, and each individual's experience, are sown thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill and that a lie told well is immortal." (Telling a lie is good- backwards) | |
| 293329684 | Balanced Sentence | similar to parallel structure, a balanced sentence features two similar elements that balance each other. Ex. Hester's sins are openly revealed to the people surrounding her, yet the clergymen's sins are hidden from all those surrounding them. | |
| 293329685 | Asyndeton | The omission of conjunctions in a series of related clauses Ex. Roger Chillingworth's consumption exhibits him to be deceitful, malicious, coldhearted. | |
| 293329686 | Polysyndeton | Opposite of asyndeton, the deliberate use of many conjunctions for emphasis. Ex. The act of Chillingworth's revenge on Dimmesdale put Chillingworth through a state of pain and agony and stress. | |
| 293375340 | Flashback | An interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. For example, in the Song of Solomon, the story flashes back and describes Pilate's experiences after her father died. | |
| 293375341 | Setting | The time and place in which the literary work occurs, and it initiates the main backdrop and mood for the story. For example, In the Scarlet Letter the setting takes place in the 17th century in Boston, in the Puritan's Massachusetts Bay colony. | |
| 293375342 | Mood | The emotional atmosphere of a story, evokes a certain emotion or feeling from the reader. For example, in the Scarlet Letter when Dimmesdale dies it creates a mood of surprise and melancholy. | |
| 293375343 | Theme | A broad idea, message, or moral of a story; an idea set forth by the story as a universal truth. For example, one theme in the Scarlet Letter is the nature of sin and redemption. | |
| 293375344 | Motif | - Any recurring element that has symbolic significance in a story. For example, one motif in the scarlet letter is night vs. day. | |
| 293375345 | Conflict | The "inherent incompatibility between the objectives of two or more characters or forces" (Wikipedia). The main types are human vs. human, human vs. environment, and human vs. self. Song of Solomon: Guitar and Milkman can't agree on what is the best method to fight racism. Romeo and Juliet: Romeo and Juliet want to be together but their families despise each other. | |
| 293375346 | Resolution | Final confrontation between protagonist and antagonist where one is ultimately victorious Harry Potter: The battle at the end of each book (especially the last one, the 7th!) where Harry duels Voldemort and ultimately kills him so that good may triumph over evil. | |
| 293375347 | Rising Action (a.k.a. complication) | Develops the conflict in the story, often the part in which the protagonist develops his goal Song of Solomon: Milkman decides to search for the gold and, ultimately, his family history, but he realizes Guitar is waging a vendetta against him | |
| 293375348 | Climax | Point in the story where some event occurs that permanently changes the story's main plot Romeo and Juliet: Romeo and Juliet kill themselves, mistakenly believing each other to be dead Song of Solomon: Milkman jumps off of Solomon's Leap at Guitar and learns how to "fly". | |
| 293375349 | Falling Action/ Denouement | Falling action takes the story to its end, a descent from the climax Denouncement is the conclusion that "gives the story closure" (SAT Literary Terms packet) Scarlet Letter: the reader learns that Pearl has moved to Europe while Hester has moved back to the colony, where she resides until her death | |
| 293375350 | Archetype | - is a universally understood symbol, or term, or pattern of behavior. A prototype upon which others are copied, patterned, or emulated. Archetypes are often used in myths and storytelling across different cultures. Example: Baptism is an example of archetype in Song of Solomon. It originated in the Bible when Jesus was living and has come to symbolize a rebirth or renewal. | |
| 293375351 | Quest | - this contains 5 key elements: a quester, a place to go, a stated reason to go there, challenges and trials on the way, and a real reason to go there. Example: This formula can be found in the novel Song of Solomon. | |
| 293375352 | Oral Tradition | - is cultural material and traditions transmitted orally from one generation to another. The messages or testimony are verbally transmitted in speech or song and may take the form, for example, of folktales, sayings, ballads, songs, or chants. In this way, it is possible for a society to transmit oral history, oral tradition, oral law, and other knowledge across generations without a writing system. Example: Examples can be found in the short story "the People Could Fly" and passages in Song of Solomon when family history and experience is shared. | |
| 293375353 | Antagonist | - is a character, group of characters, or institution that represents the opposition against which the protagonist must contend. In other words, 'A person, or a group of people who oppose the main character, or the main characters.' Example: An example of an antagonist can be found in the Scarlet Letter, in the character Roger Chillingworth as he was one of the reasons Hester Prynne never quite found redemption. | |
| 293375354 | Protagonist | - is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify. Example: The protagonist in Song of Solomon is Milkman, since the novel is centered around his journey of self discovery. | |
| 293375355 | P.O.V. 1st person | A character, whether minor or major, tells the story. This may be the most limited point of view. Example: In Langston Hughes' poem "I, Too, Sing America" the speaker is the narrator of the story he predicts for the future. | |
| 293375356 | P.O.V. 3rd person limited | - The narrator, who is not a character in the story knows, only the main characters thoughts and feelings-no one else's. Example: An example of this can be found in Poe's short story the "Fall of the House of Usher" | |
| 293375357 | P.O.V. 3rd person omniscient | - The narrator can know all of the thoughts and feelings of every character, can "see" any location at any time in the novel, and have almost a God's eye view. Example: The narrator in Song of Solomon is third person omniscient, which is demonstrated when we read the individual experiences of most of the characters in the book. | |
| 293375358 | Irony: Situational | -The actions taken have an effect exactly opposite from what was intended. Descriptions or depictions of situational ironies, whether in fiction or in non-fiction, serve a communicative function of sharpening or highlighting certain discordant features of reality. Situational irony is often used for emphasis in the assertion of a truth. Example: An example of situational irony can be found in The Scarlet Letter when Roger Chillingworth did his best to keep Hester Prynne, Pearl, and Mr. Dimmesdale from escaping his revenge and watchful eye. At the end of the novel his evil intent led the family to reveal their secrets and free themselves from him. | |
| 293375359 | Irony: Dramatic | - The author causes a character to speak or act erroneously, out of ignorance of some portion of the truth of which the audience is aware. In other words, the audience knows the character is making a mistake, even as the character is making it. This technique highlights the importance of a particular truth by portraying a person who is strikingly unaware of it. Example: An example of dramatic irony is when Guitar started to behave rashly when he thought that Milkman stole the money for himself in Song of Solomon. However the reader knows that Milkman did not find any money therefore making Guitar seem out of control and slightly deranged. | |
| 293802556 | Conceit | an extended metaphor with complex logic that governs a poetic passage or entire poem Ex: George Herbert's praise in which the generosity of God is compared to a bottle which will take in all of the speakers tears. | |
| 293802557 | Extended Metaphor | a metaphor that continues into the sentences that follow (similar to a conceit) Ex: "The seeds have already been sown." It remains to be seen whether weeds or flowers will spring forth. | |
| 293802558 | Apostrophe | a speaker's direct address to either a nonhuman entity or an absent human Ex: Death Be not Proud | |
| 293802559 | Allegory | The expression by means of symbolic fictional figures and actions of truths or generalizations about human existence. Ex: Animal Farm | |
| 293802560 | Foil | a character who contrasts with another character (usually the protagonist) in order to highlight particular qualities of the other character Ex: Milkman & Guitar | |
| 293802561 | Paradox | a seeming contradiction with a greater truth Ex: 1984, "War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength" | |
| 293802562 | Sonnet | a type of poem with 14 lines of iambic pentameter and a specific rhyme scheme Ex: Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date. Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimmed; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimmed; But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st, Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade, When in eternal lines to Time thou grow'st. So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. | |
| 293802563 | Romanticism | a style validating strong emotion as an authentic source of aesthetic experience, and placing emphasis on the sublimity of untamed nature and its picturesque qualities Ex: Anything by Edgar Allen Poe |
