AP Literature Poetry Terms Flashcards

6692599768	allegory	an extended narrative in prose or verse in which characters, events, & settings represent abstract qualities & in which the writer intends a second meaning to be read beneath the surface story; the underlying meaning may be moral, religious, political, social, or satiric	0
6692611337	alliteration	the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words that are close to one another; for example, "beautiful blossoms blooming between the bushes"	1
6692621081	allusion	a reference to another work or famous figure assumed to be well known enough to be recognized by the reader	2
6692624864	analogy	a comparison of two similar but different things, usually to clarify an action or a relationship, such as comparing the work of a heart to a pump	3
6692631758	apostrophe	the device of calling out to an imaginary, dead, or absent person, or to a place, thing, or personified abstraction either to begin a poem or to make a dramatic break in though somewhere within the poem	4
6692640864	ballad	a long narrative poem that presents a single dramatic episode, which is often tragic or violent	5
6692645054	blank verse	poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter, a favorite form used by Shakespeare	6
6692649797	catharsis	the emotional release that an audience member experiences as a result of watching a tragedy	7
6692654774	elegy	a form poem focusing on death or morality, usually beginning with the recent death of a particular person	8
6692658628	figurative language	language that contains figures of speech such as similes & metaphors in order to create associations that are imaginative rather than literal	9
6692668628	foil	a character who, by contrast, highlights the characteristics of another character	10
6692675167	foreshadowing	the use of a hint or clue to suggest a larger event that occurs later in the work	11
6692677750	hubris	the excessive pride of ambition that leads a tragic hero to disregard warnings of impending doom, eventually causing his or her downfall	12
6692682594	imagery	words or phrases that use a collection of images to appeal to one or more of the five senses in order to create a mental picture	13
6692687475	irony	a situation or statement in which the actual outcome or meaning is opposite to what was exceeded	14
6692693055	lyric	a type of melodious, imaginative, & subjective poetry that is usually short & personal, expressing the thoughts & feelings of a single speaker rather than telling a story	15
6692699855	metaphor	a figure of speech in which one thing is referred to as another, for example, "my love is a fragile flower"	16
6692705370	metonymy	a figure of speech that uses the name of an object, person, or idea to represent something with which it is associated, such as using "the crown" to refer to a monarch	17
6692714105	mood	similar to tone, mood is the primary emotional attitude of a work	18
6692718872	ode	a long lyric poem, usually serious, & elevated in tone; often written to praise someone or something	19
6692723114	oxymoron	a figure of speech composed of contradictory words or phrases, such as "wise fool"	20
6692728939	paradox	a statement that seems to contradict itself but that turns out to have a rational meaning, as in Thoreau's: "I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude."	21
6692739126	personification	the attribution of human qualities to a nonhuman or an inanimate object	22
6692742547	point of view	the perspective from which a story is presented	23
6692745779	refrain	a line or group of lines that are periodically repeated throughout a poem	24
6692750053	regionalism	an element in literature that conveys a realistic portrayal of a specific geographical locale, using the locale & its influences as a major part of the plot	25
6692759772	sarcasm	harsh, caustic personal remarks to or about someone; less subtle than irony	26
6692762968	simile	uses like, as, or as if to make a direct comparison	27
6692766423	soliloquy	speech spoken by a character alone on stage, giving the impression that the audience is listening to the character's thoughts	28
6692773576	stereotype	a character who represents a trait that is usually attributed to a particular social or racial group & lacks individuality	29
6692887862	symbol/symbolism	generally, anything that represents or stands for something else	30
6692890005	synecdoche	a figure of speech in which a part of something is used to represent a whole, such as using "boards" to mean "a stage"	31
6692900939	theme	the central idea or message of a literary work	32
6692913488	tragic flaw	the one weakness that causes the downfall of the hero in a tragedy	33
6692917065	voice	the way a written work conveys an author's attitude	34
6692920552	villanelle	a closed form poem of nineteen lines, composed of five tercets & a concluding quatrain	35
6692933066	sestina	a poem with six stanzas of six lines & a final triplet, all stanzas having the same six words at the line-ends in six different sequences that follow a fixed pattern	36
6692941116	enjambment	carrying the poetic line to another line before completing the thought	37
6692943065	synesthesia	using words that relate to one of the five senses to describe a situation from another of the five senses	38
6692948121	octave	the first eight lines of an Italian sonnet, unified by topic, rhythm, & rhyme	39
6692951986	sestet	the last six lines of an Italian sonnet	40