66 terms: AP English literary terms summer 2014
Allegory
symbolic narrative in which surface details imply secondary meaning
Alliteration
repetition of consonant sounds, especially at the beginnings of words.
Anapest
two unaccented syllables followed by an accented one
Antagonist
character or force against which main character struggles
Assonance
repetition of similar vowel sounds in a line or sentence of poetry
Aubade
love lyric in which speaker complains of arrival of dawn when he must leave his lover
ballad
narrative poem written in 4-line stanzas; characterized by swift action and narrated in a direct style
Bildungsroman
a novel about the moral and psychological growth of the main character
blank verse
line of poetry or prose in unrhymed iambic pentameter
caesura
pause within a line of verse
character
imaginary person living in a literary work
characterization
means by which author presents and reveals characters
connotations
The personal and emotional associations called up by a word that go beyond its dictionary meaning.
convention
A customary feature of a literary work such as the use of rhyme in a sonnet.
couplet
A pair of rhymed lines that may or may not constitute a separate stanza in a poem.
Dactyl
A stressed syllable followed by two unstressed ones
denotation
dictionary meaning of a word
dialogue
conversation of characters
diction
selection of words in a literary work
dramatic
A type of poem in which a speaker addresses a silent listener
monologue
elegy
A lyric poem that laments the dead.
elision
The omission of an unstressed vowel or syllable to preserve the meter of a line of poetry.
enjambment
A run-on line of poetry in which logical and grammatical sense carries over from one line into the next
epic
A long narrative poem that records the adventures of a hero
epigram
brief witty poem, often satirical
figurative
A form of language use in which writers and speakers convey something other than the literal meaning of their words
language
foot
A metrical unit composed of stressed and unstressed syllables
free verse
Poetry without a regular pattern of meter or rhyme
hyperbole
figure of speech involving exaggeration
iamb
unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one
imagery
concrete representation of a sense impression, feeling, or idea
irony
A contrast or gap between what is said and what is meant or between what happens and what is expected to happen. In verbal
irony characters say the opposite of what they mean. In irony of circumstance or situation the opposite of what is expected
happens. In dramatic irony a character speaks in ignorance of a situation or event known to the audience or to other characters,
literal language
form of language in which a writer mean exactly what their words denote
lyric poem
A type of poem characterized by brevity, compression, and the expression of feeling
metaphor
a comparison between essentially unlike things WITHOUT using 'like' or 'as'
meter
measured pattern of rhythmic accents in a poem
metonymy
A figure of speech in which a closely related term is substituted for an object or idea
narrative poem
poem that tells a story
narrator
voice and implied speaker of a fictional work
octave
an eight-line unit, which may constitute a stanza or a section of a poem, as in the octave of a sonnet
ode
A long, stately poem in stanzas of varied length, meter, and form
onomatopeia
The use of words to imitate the sounds they describe. Words such as buzz and crack are onomatopoetic
open form
A type of structure or form in poetry characterized by freedom from regularity and consistency in such elements as rhyme, line
length, and metrical pattern.
parody
A humorous, mocking imitation of a literary work
personification
The endowment of inanimate objects or abstract concepts with human qualities or actions
plot
organization of incidents in literary work
protagonist
main character of literary work
quatrain
4 line stanza in a poem
rhetorical
a question to which an overt answer is not expected
question
rhyme
The matching of final vowel or consonant sounds in two or more words
rhythm
The recurrence of accent or stress in lines of verse
romance
A type of narrative fiction or poem in which adventure is a central feature and in which an idealized vision of reality is
presented
satire
A literary work that criticizes human misconduct and ridicules vices, stupidities, and follies
sestet
A six-line unit of verse constituting a stanza or section of a poem; the last six lines of an Italian sonnet
soliloquy
An extended speech in a play in which a character alone onstage expresses his thoughts
sonnet
A fourteen-line poem in iambic pentameter
spondee
A metrical foot represented by two stressed syllables
style
The way an author chooses words, arranges them in sentences or in lines of dialogue or verse, and develops ideas and actions
with description, imagery, and other literary techniques.
subject
What a story or play is about
subplot
A subsidiary or subordinate or parallel plot in a play or story that coexists with the main plot.
symbol
An object or action in a literary work that means more than itself, that stands for something beyond itself
synecdoche
A figure of speech in which a part is substituted for the whole
syntax
The grammatical order of words in a sentence or line of verse or dialogue
tercet
theme
3 line stanza
The idea of a literary work abstracted from its details of language, character, and action, and cast in the form of a
generalization.
tone
The implied attitude of a writer toward the subject and characters of a work.