AP Lit poetry terms
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68 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 accent | a diacritical mark used to indicate stress or placed above a vowel to indicate a special pronunciation |
| alliteration | use of the same consonant at the beginning of each stressed syllable in a line of verse |
| anapest | a metrical unit with unstressed-unstressed-stressed syllables |
| anapestic | (of a metric foot) characterized by two short syllables followed by a long one |
| apostrophe | a poem directly addressing a person or thing, often absent |
| assonance | the repetition of similar vowels in the stressed syllables of successive words |
| aubade | a poem addressing the dawn |
| ballad | a type of poem that is meant to be sung and is both lyric and narrative in nature |
| blank verse | poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter |
| cadence | a recurrent rhythmical series |
| canto | a major division of a long poem |
| caesura | a break or pause (usually for sense) in the middle of a verse line |
| conceit | a startling or unusual metaphor |
| consonance | the repitition of consonant sounds with words |
| convention | orthodoxy as a consequence of being conventional |
| couplet | a pair of lines that end in rhyme |
| dactyl | a metrical unit with stressed-unstressed-unstressed syllables |
| dactylic | stressed, unstressed, unstressed |
| dimeter | a metrical line containing two feet |
| dirge | a song or hymn of mourning composed or performed as a memorial to a dead person |
| dissonance | the auditory experience of sound that lacks musical quality` |
| doggerel | crude, simplistic verse |
| dramatic dialogue | A literary, usually verse composition, in which a speaker reveals his or her character often in relation to a critical situation or event, in a monologue addressed to the reader or to a presumed listener.--a soliloquoy is an example |
| elegy | a type of poem that meditates on death or mortality |
| end rhyme | rhyme at the end syllable of poetry |
| epic | a long narrative poem written in elevated style which present the adventures of characters of high position and episodes that are important to the history of a race or nation |
| foot | the basic rhythmic unit of a line of poetry formed by a combo of 2 or 3 syllables which afre stressed or unstressed |
| free verse | poetry written without a regular rhyme scheme or metrical pattern |
| heptameter | seven feet per line |
| heroic couplet | a couplet consisting of two rhymed lines of iambic pentamenter and written in an elevated style |
| hexameter | a verse line having six metrical feet |
| iamb | a metrical unit with unstressed-stressed syllables |
| iambic | a verse line consisting of iambs |
| iambic pentameter | a common meter in poetry consisting of an unrhymed line with five feet or accents, each foot containing an unaccented syllable and an accented syllable |
| lament | a mournful poem |
| limerick | a kind of humorous verse of five lines, in which the first, second, and fifth lines rhyme with each other, and the third and fourth lines, which are shorter, form a rhymed couplet |
| lyric | a type of poetry that deals with a poet's interpretations of and feelings about the world |
| metonymy | substituting the name of an attribute or feature for the name of the thing itself (as in 'they counted heads') |
| metaphor | a direct comparison between two things |
| metaphysical poets | a loose group of British lyric poets of the 17th century, who shared an interest in metaphysical concerns and a common way of investigating them |
| meter | rhythm as given by division into parts of equal time |
| mock epic | A work of literature that applies the characteristics and conventions of epic poetry to trivial subject matter for the sake of humor, irony, parody, or satire. |
| monometer | 1 foot per line |
| octave | 8 line stanza |
| ode | a poem usually addressed to a particular person, object or event that has stimulated deep and noble feelings in the poet |
| onomatopoeia | words that sound like what they mean |
| pastoral | a poem set in the countryside, or even more specifically one about shepards |
| pentameter | five feet per line |
| Petrarchan/ Italian sonnet | this is divided into two parts, the eight-line octave and the six-line sestet. The octave rhymes abba abba, while the sestet rhymes cde cde. The octave raises a question, states a problem, or presents a brief narrative, and the sestet answers the question or solves the problem. |
| pun | a humorous play on words |
| quatrain | a stanza of four lines |
| refrain | a line or set of lines repeated several times over the course of a poem |
| requiem | a song or hymn of mourning composed or performed as a memorial to a dead person |
| scansion | The process of marking lines of poetry to show the type of feet and the number of feet they contain |
| sestet | a rhythmic group of six lines of verse |
| Shakespearean/ Elizabethan sonnet | consists of 3 quatrains and a final rhyming couplet. Rhyme scheme is abab, cdcd, efef, gg. Usually, the question or theme is set forth in the quatrains while the answer or resolution appears in the final couplet. |
| simile | a figure of speech that expresses a resemblance between things of different kinds (usually formed with 'like' or 'as') |
| slant rhyme | rhyme in which the vowel sounds are nearly, but not exactly the same (i.e. the words "stress" and "kiss"); sometimes called half-rhyme, near rhyme, or partial rhyme |
| sonnet | a verse form consisting of 14 lines with a fixed rhyme scheme |
| speaker | the person speaking in the poem, like the narrator in prose - not always the poet |
| stanza | an arrangement of a certain number of lines, usually four or more, sometimes having a fixed length, meter, or rhyme scheme, forming a division of a poem. |
| synecdoche | understanding oen thing with another; the use of a part for the whole or the whole for the part |
| tercet | three line stanza |
| tone | the quality of something (an act or a piece of writing) that reveals the attitudes and presuppositions of the author |
| trimeter | 3 feet per line |
| triple rhyme | Three syllables of words rhyme |
| trochee/trochiac | a metrical unit in poetry in which each foot has a stressed syllable + an unstressed syllable |
| villanelle | a lyric form that relies heavily on repetition an dis composed of five three-line tercets and a final four-line quatrain; its singular feature is the way its first and third lines repeat throughout the poem--the entire first line reappears as the final line of the second and fourth tercets, and again as the third line of the third and fifth tercets and as the concluding line of the poem |
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