AP Literature Vocabulary
1.
Abstract Language: Language describing ideas and qualities rather than observable or specific things, people, or
places. The observable or “physical” is usually described in concrete language.
2.
Allegory: A story, fictional, in which characters, things, and events represent qualities or concepts. The interaction
of these characters, things, and events is meant to reveal an abstraction or a truth. These characters, etc. may be symbolic of
the ideas referred to.
Examples: Pilgrim’s Progress; Animal Farm; The Faerie Queen
3.
Alliteration: The repetition of initial identical consonant sounds. Or, vowel sounds in successive words or syllables
that repeat.
Examples:
From Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”
The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,
The furrow followed free;
We were the first that ever burst
Into that silent sea.
From James Joyce’s “The Dead”
His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and
faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.
4.
Allusion: An indirect reference to something (usually a literary text) with which the reader is supposed to be
familiar. Allusion is often used with humorous intent, to establish a connection between writer and reader, or to make a subtle
point.
Examples:
From Act III of Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus
Learned Faustus to find the secrets of astronomy
Graven in the book of Jove’s high firmament,
Did mount him up to scale Olympus’ top,
Where, sitting in a chariot burning bright,
Drawn by the strength of yoked dragons’ necks,
He views the clouds, the planets, and the stars.
From Conrad’s Heart of Darkness
The two knitting women increase his anxiety by gazing at him and all the other sailors
with knowing unconcern. Their eerie looks suggest that they know what will happen (the
men dying), yet don’t care.
5. Ambiguity: An event or situation that may be interpreted in more than one way. Also, the manner of expression of such an
event or situation may be ambiguous. Artful language may be ambiguous. Unintentional ambiguity is usually vagueness.
Example:
William Blake’s “The Sick Rose”
O Rose thou art sick.
The invisible worm
That flies in the night
In the howling storm:
Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy;
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.
6. Anachronism: An anachronism is an error of chronology or timeline in a literary piece.
Examples:
from Julius Caesar Act II, sc. i
BRUTUS. Peace! Count the clock.
CASSIUS. The clock has stricken three.
from Macbeth, Act I, sc. 2
ROSS. That now
Sweno, the Norways’ king, craves composition:
Nor would we deign him burial of his men
Till he disbursed at Saint Colme’s inch
Ten thousand dollars to our general use.
from Keats’ “Ode to the Grecian Urn”
Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter: therefore, ye soft pipes play on
7. Analogy: An analogy is a comparison to a directly parallel case. When a writer uses an analogy, he or she argues that a
claim reasonable for one case is reasonable for the analogous case. A similarity or comparison between two different things
or the relationship between them.
Examples:
From Amy Lowell’s poem “Night Clouds”
The white mares of the moon rush along the sky
Beating their golden hoofs upon the glass Heavens.
From Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “The Day is Done”
Read from some humbler poet
Whose songs gushed from his heart,
As showers from the clouds of summer,
Or tears from the eyelids start.
From Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Act II, scene ii
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet.
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo called.
8. Anaphora: An anaphora is the deliberate repetition of the first part of the sentence in order to achieve an artistic effect.
Examples:
From Shakespeare’s Richard II, Act 2, sc. 1
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,
This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings…
From Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of
foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it
was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.
From William Blake’s “The Tyger”
What the hammer? What the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
9. Anecdote: A brief recounting of a relevant episode. Anecdotes are often inserted into fictional or nonfictional texts as a way
of developing appoint or injecting humor.
10. Antagonist: An antagonist is a character or a group of characters which stand in opposition to the protagonist or the main
character.
11. Anti-hero: An anti-hero is a prominent character in a work of literature who has characteristics opposite to that of the
conventional hero. An anti-hero is typically clumsy, unsolicited, unskilled, an outcast, and shares good and bad qualities.
Examples: Dexter Morgan, Megamind, Gru, Holden Caulfield, Jay Gatsby, Scarlett O’Hara, Tom Ripley, Severus
Snape, Tyler Durden
12. Antimetabole: An antimetabole is a literary term or device that involves repeating a phrase in reverse order.
Examples:
Eat to live, not live to eat. (Socrates)
Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country. (JFK)
13. Antiphrasis: Antiphrasis is a figure of speech in which a phrase or word is employed in a way that is opposite to its literal
meaning in order to create an ironic or comic effect.
Example:
From Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar
CASSIUS. I did mark
How he did shake…tis true this god did shake…His coward lips did from
their color fly…
14. Antithesis: a balancing of two opposite or contrasting words, phrases, or clauses.
Examples:
From Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age
of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season
of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of
despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct
to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.
From John Milton’s Paradise Lost
Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav’n
15. Apostrophe: A figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person or a personified abstraction, such as
liberty or love. The effect may add familiarity or emotional intensity.
Examples:
From Shakespeare’s Macbeth
Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand?
Come, let me clutch thee!
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
From Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein
Oh! Stars and clouds and winds, ye are all about to mock me; if ye really pity me, crush
sensation and memory; let me become as nought; but if not, depart, depart, and leave me
in the darkness.
From John Donne’s “Death Be Not Proud”
Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for, though art not so,
For those whom thou think’st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poor death, nor yet canst though kill me.
16. Archetype: An archetype is a typical character, an action or a situation that seems to represent such universal patterns of
human nature. Also known as a universal symbol, an archetype may be a character, a theme, or even a setting.
17. Assonance: Repetition of a vowel sound within two or more words in close proximity.
Examples:
From Frost’s “Fire and Ice”
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark, and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
From Cormac McCarthy’s Outer Dark
And stepping softly with her air of blooded ruin about the glade in a frail agony of grace
she trailed her rags through dust and ashes, circling the dead fire, the charred billets and
chalk bones, the little calcined ribcage.
From Dylan Thomas’ “Do Not Go Gentle into the Good Night”
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Old age should burn and rave at the close of day;
Rage, rage, against the dying of the light.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight,
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage, against the dying of the light.
18. Asyndeton: Commas used (with no conjunction) to separate a series of words. The parts are emphasized equally when the
conjunction is omitted; in addition, the use of commas with no intervening conjunction speeds up the flow of the sentence.
Asyndeton takes the form of X, Y, Z as opposed to X, Y, and Z.
Examples:
From Shakespeare’s Othello
Call up her father.
Rouse him. Make after him, Poison his delight,
Proclaim him in the streets. Incense her kinsmen,
And, though he in a fertile climate dwell,
From James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Consciousness of place came ebbing back to him slowly over a vast tract of time unlit,
unfelt, unlived…
19. Atmosphere: The emotional mood created by the entirety of a literary work, established partly by the setting and partly by
the author’s choice of objects that are described. Even such elements as a description of the weather can contribute to the
atmosphere. Frequently, atmosphere foreshadows events. See mood.
20. Ballad: A ballad is a type of poetry which was used in dance songs in France. During the 16 th and 17th century, it gained
popularity in other European nations. Ballad rely on simple language and dialect. They often involve stories of hardships,
tragedies, love, and romance. A ballad contains recurring lines at regular intervals.
Example: “Rime of an Ancient Mariner” (lyrical ballad)
21. Bildungsroman: A bildungsroman is a special kind of novel that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of its main
character.
Examples: The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling; David Copperfield; A Portrait of the Artist as a Young
Man; Never Let Me Go
22. Blank Verse: Blank verse is an unrhymed verse written in iambic pentameter. Blank verse has no fixed number of lines. It is
often used in drama and long narrative poems.
Examples:
From “Mending Walls” by Robert Frost
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
From Shakespeare’s Hamlet
But, woe is me, you are so sick of late,
So far from cheer and from your former state,
That I distrust you. Yet, though I distrust.
Discomfort you, my lord, it nothing must…
From “Ulysses” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
It little profits that an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags
Match’d with an aged wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race…,
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.
23. Catharsis: A catharsis is an emotional discharge through which one can achieve a state of moral or spiritual renewal.
24. Conceit: A fanciful expression, usually in the form of an extended metaphor or surprising analogy between seemingly
dissimilar objects. A conceit displays intellectual cleverness due to the unusual comparison being made.
Examples:
From Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Act III, sc. v
Thou counterfeit’st a bark, a sea, a wind;
For still thy eyes, which I may call the sea,
Do ebb and flow with tears; the bark thy body is.
Sailing in this salt flood; the winds, they sighs;
Who raging with thy tears, and they with them,
Without a sudden calm, will overset
They tempest-tossed body.
From John Donne’s “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”
If they be two, they are two so As stiff
Twin compasses are two;
Thy soul, the fix’d foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if th’ other do.
And though it in the center sit,
Yet when the other far doth roam,
It leans, and hearkens after it,
And grows erect, as that comes home.
From John Donne’s “The Flea”
Oh stay! three lives on one flea spare
Where we almost, yea more than married are.
The flea is you and I, and this
Our marriage-bed and marriage-temple is
25. Concrete Language: Language that describes specific, observable things, people, or places, rather than ideas or qualities.
26. Connotation: Rather than the dictionary definition, the associations suggested by a word. Implied meaning rather than
literal meaning or denotation.
27. Consonance: Repetition of a consonant sound within two or more words in close proximity.
Examples:
From Emily Dickinson’s “’Twas later when the summer went”
‘Twas later when the summer went
Than when the cricket came,
And yet we knew that gentle clock
Meant nought but going home.
‘Twas sooner when the cricket went
Than when the winter came,
Yet that pathetic pendulum
Keeps esoteric time.
From “Shall I Wasting in Despair” by George Wither
Great, or good, or kind, or fair;
I will ne’er the more despair;
If she love me, this believe,
I will die ere she shall grieve;
If she slight me when I woo,
I can scorn and let her go;
For if she be not for me,
What care I for whom she be?
From Dickinson’s “As imperceptibly as Grief”
A Quietness distilled
As Twilight long begun
Or Nature spending with herself
Sequestered Afternoon--
28. Couplet: A couplet contains two successive rhyming lines in verse. A couplet forms a complete thought.
Examples:
From “Sonnet 3” by Shakespeare
Look in thy glass, and tell the face thou viewest
Now is the time that face should form another;
Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest,
Thou dost beguile the world, unless some mother,
For where is she so fair whose unear’d womb…
But if thou live, remember’d not to be,
Die single, and thine image dies with thee.
From “Hero and Leander” by Christopher Marlowe
A Sestos Hero dwelt; Hero the fair,
Whom young Apollo courted for her hair,
And offered as a dower his burning throne,
Where she should sit for men to gaze upon.
The outside of her garments were of lawn,
The lining purple silk, with gilt starts drawn.
29. Denotation: The strict, literal, dictionary definition of a word, devoid of any emotion, attitude, or color. See connotation.
30. Denouement: Denouement is the resolution of the issue of a complicated plot in fiction.
31. Deus ex machina: Deus ex machine refers to the circumstance where an implausible concept or a divine character is
introduced into a storyline for the purpose of resolving its conflict.
Examples: Medea
32. Dialect: Dialect refers to the people of a specific area, class, district, or any other group of people. Dialect is a very powerful
and common way of characterization.
Examples:
From Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Jim: “We’s safe, Huck, we’s safe! Jump up and crack yo’ heels. Dat’s de good ole Cairo
at las’, I jis knows it.
Huck: “I’ll take the canoe and go see, Jim. It mightn’t be, you know.
From Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbirdi
Walter: Reckon I have. Almost died first year I come to school and et them pecans—
folks say he pizened ‘em and put ‘em over on the school side of the fence.
33. Diction: Word choice, particularly as an element of style. Different types and arrangements of words have significant effects
on meaning.
34. Didactic: A term used to describe fiction or nonfiction that teaches a specific lesson or moral or provides a model of correct
behavior or thinking.
35. Dramatic Irony: The reader is aware of an inconsistency between a fictional or nonfictional character’s perception of a
situation and the truth of the situation.
36. Elegy: A poem or song written in honor of someone deceased. It usually begins with an invocation of the muse. Towards
the end of the poem, the poet will try to provide comfort to ease the pain of the situation.
Examples:
From “In Memory of W.B. Yeats” by W.H. Auden
With the farming of a verse
Make a vineyard of the curse,
Sing of human unsuccess
In a rapture of distress;
In the deserts of the heart
Let the healing fountain start,
In the prison of his days
Teach the free man how to praise.
37. Enjambment: An enjambment means moving over from one line to another without terminating punctuation. The thought
or phrase does not come to an end at the line break but moves to the next line.
Examples:
From “It is a Beauteous Evening” by William Wordsworth
It is a beauteous Evening, calm and free;
The holy time is quiet as a Nun
Breathless with adoration; the broad sun
Is sinking down in its tranquility;
The gentleness of heaven is on the Sea;
Listen! The mighty Being is awake
And doth with his eternal motion make
A sound like thunder―everlastinly.
Thou liest in Abraham’s bosom all the year;
And worshipp’st at the Temple’s inner shrine,
God being with thee when we know it not.
From “Endymion” by John Keats
A thing of beauty is a joy forever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and asleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
From “The Waste Land” by T.S. Eliot
April is the cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
38. Epigraph: A quotation or aphorism at the beginning of a literary work suggestive of a theme.
39. Epithet: An epithet describes a place, a thing, or a person in such a way that it helps in making the characteristics of a
person, thing, or place more prominent.
Examples:
From “Brendon Hills” by A.E. Housman
Here of a Sunday morning
My love and I would lie,
And see the coloured counties,
And hear the larks so high
About us in the sky.
From “Beauty and Beauty” by Rupert Brooke
The earth is crying-sweet,
And scattering-bright the air,
Eddying, dizzying, closing round,
With soft and drunken laughter…
From The Odyssey
I’ve come,
As you surmise, with comrades on a ship,
Sailing across the wine-dark sea to men
Whose style of speech is very different…
40. Euphemism: From the Greek for “good speech,” euphemisms are a more agreeable or less offensive substitute for a
generally unpleasant word or concept. The euphemism may be used to adhere to standards of social or political correctness or
to add humor or ironic understatement. Saying “earthly remains” rather than “corpse” is an example of euphemism.
41. Euphony: Euphony is the use of words and phrases that are distinguished as having melody or loveliness in the sounds they
create. It gives pleasing and soothing effects to the ears due to repeated vowels and smooth consonants.
Examples:
From “Ode to Autumn” by John Keats
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch -eves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
From “Success” by Emily Dickinson
Success is counted sweetest
By those who ne’er succeed.
To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need.
Not one of all the purple host
Who took the flag to-day
Can tell the definition,
So clear, of victory,
As he, defeated, dying,
On whose forbidden ear
The distant strains of triumph
Break, agonized and clear!
42. Explication: The act of interpreting or discovering the meaning of a text. Explication usually involves close reading and
special attention to figurative language.
43. Exposition: Background information provided by a writer to enhance a reader’s understanding of the context of a fictional or
nonfictional story.
44. Extended Metaphor: A metaphor developed at great length, occurring frequently in or throughout a work.
Examples:
From Mark Twain’s Life on the Mississippi
One day [Mr. Bixby] turned on me suddenly with this settler—‘What is the shape of
Walnut Bend?’”
He might as well have asked me my grandmother’s opinion of protoplasm. I reflected
respectfully, and then said I didn’t know it had any particular shape. My gun powdery
chief went off with a bang, of course, and then went on loading and firing until he was
out of adjectives.
I had learned long ago that he only carried just so many rounds of ammunition, and was
sure to subside into a very placable and even remorseful old smooth-bore as soon as they
were all gone.
From Shakespeare’s As You Like It
All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts.
45. Fable: A fable is a concise and brief story intended to provide a moral lesson.
46. Fiction: A product of a writer’s imagination, usually made up of characters, plot, setting, point of view, and theme.
47. Figurative Language: Writing or speech that is not intended to carry literal meaning and is usually meant to be imaginative
and vivid.
48. Figure of Speech: A device used to produce figurative language. Many compare dissimilar things. Figures of speech include,
for example, apostrophe, hyperbole, irony, metaphor, metonymy, oxymoron, paradox, personification, simile, synecdoche,
and understatement.
49. Foil: A foil is a character that shows qualities that are in contrast to the qualities of another character. The foil is meant to
highlight the traits of another character.
Examples: Hector and Paris in The Iliad, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange in
Wuthering Heights.
50. Free Verse: Free verse is poetry that is free from limitations of regular meter or rhythm and does not rhyme with fixed
forms.
Examples:
From “A Noiseless Patient Spider” by Walt Whitman
A noiseless patient spider,
I mark’d where on a little promontory it stood isolated,
Mark’d how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,
It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,
Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.
And you O my soul where you stand,
Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,…….
Till the bridge you will need be form’d, till the ductile anchor hold,
Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.
From “Soonest Mended” by John Ashbury
Barely tolerated, living on the margin
In our technological society, we were always having to be rescued
On the brink of destruction, like heroines in Orlando Furioso
Before it was time to start all over again.
There would be thunder in the bushes, a rustling of coils,…….
The whole thing might not, in the end, be the only solution……..
Came plowing down the course, just to make sure everything was O.K.…
About how to receive this latest piece of information.
51. Freight-train: Sentence consisting of three or more very short independent clauses joined by conjunctions.
52. Genre: The major category into which a literary work fits. The basic divisions of literature are prose, poetry, and drama.
However, genre is a flexible term; within these broad boundaries exist many subdivisions that are often called genres
themselves. For example, prose can be divided into fiction (novels and short stories) or nonfiction (essays, biographies,
autobiographies, etc.) Poetry can be divided into lyric, dramatic, narrative, epic, etc. Drama can be divided into tragedy,
comedy, melodrama, farce, etc.
53. Hamartia: Hamartia is the Greek word for a personal error in a protagonist’s personality that brings about his tragic
downfall. This is also known as the hero’s tragic flaw. Usually the error in judgment is marked by a reversal in fortune.
Often the hamartia is attributed to hubris.
54. Hubris: Hubris is extreme pride and arrogance shown by a character that ultimately brings about his downfall.
55. Hyperbole: Conscious exaggeration used to heighten effect. Not intended literally, hyperbole is often humorous, but a
serious effect is possible. It often produces irony at the same time.
Examples:
From Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Act II, sc. ii
Neptune’s ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No. This my hand will rather.
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red.
From W.H. Auden’s poem “As I Walked One Evening”
I’ll love you, dear, I’ll love you
Till China and Africa meet,
And the river jumps over the mountain
And the salmon sing in the street,
I’ll love you till the ocean
Is folded and hung up to dry
From Conrad’s The Heart of Darkness
I had to wait in the station for ten days-an eternity.
56. Iamb: An iamb is a metrical foot consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.
Examples:
From “Dust of Snow” by Robert Frost
The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree
Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.
From “The Only News I Know” by Emily Dickinson
The only news I know
Is bulletins all day
From Immortality.
The only shows I see,
Tomorrow and Today,
Perchance Eternity.
57. Image: A word or words, either figurative or literal, used to describe a sensory experience or an object perceived by the
senses. An image is always a concrete representation.
58. Imagery: The use of images, especially in pattern or related images, often figurative, to create a strong, unified sensory
impression.
Examples:
From Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope’s ear.
From John Keats’ “To the Autumn”
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now the treble soft
The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft,
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.
From E.B. White’s Once More to the Lake
When the others went swimming my son said he was going in, too. He pulled his
dripping trunks from the line where they had hung all through the shower and wrung
them out. Languidly, and with no thought of going in, I watched him, his hard little body,
skinny and bare, saw him wince slightly as he pulled up around his vitals the small,
soggy, icy garment. As he buckled the swollen belt, suddenly my groin felt the child of
death.
From Dickens’ Great Expectations
It was a rimy morning, and very damp. I had seen the damp lying on the outside of my
little window…Now, I saw the damp lying on the bare hedges and spare grass,…On
every rail and gate, wet lay clammy; and the marsh-mist was so think, that the wooden
finger on the post directing people to our village—a direction which they never accepted,
for they never came there—was invisible to me until I was quite close under it.
59. Inference/infer: To draw a reasonable conclusion from the information presented. When a multi-purpose question asks for
an inference to be drawn from a passage, the most direct, most reasonable inference is the safest answer choice. If an
inference is implausible, it’s unlikely to be the correct answer. Note that if the answer choice is directly stated, it is not
inferred and is wrong.
60. Inversion: Variation of the normal word order (subject first, then verb, then compliment) which puts a modifier or the verb at
the first of the sentence. The element that appears first is emphasized more than the subject.
Examples:
From Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Act I, sc. v
Her mother is the lady of the house,
And a good lady, wise and virtuous.
I nursed her daughter that you talked withal.
I tell you, he that can lay hold of her,
Shall have the chinks.
From Shakespeare’s Macbeth
If’t be so, For Banquo’s issue have I fill’d my mind,
For them the gracious Duncan have I murther’d.
Pun rancors in the vessel of my peace
Only for them, and mine eternal jewel
Given to the common enemy of man,
To make them kings—the seed of Banquo kings!
Rather than so, come, Fate, into the list,
And champion me to the utterance!
61. Internal Rhyme: Internal rhyme is a poetic device in which the middle and end words of metrical lines rhymes with each
other.
Example:
From “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door…..
Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December;
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow; – vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow – sorrow for the lost Lenore…
62. Irony/Ironic: Irony describes the gap between what is expected and what actually occurs. Dramatic irony occurs when a
reader is aware of a reality that differs from a character’s perception of reality. The literal meaning versus the intended
meaning of a writer’s words may create verbal irony. Situational irony occurs when events turn out differently from what was
expected.
Examples:
From Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Act I, sc. v
Go ask his name: if he be married.
My grave is like to be my wedding bed.”
From Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar
‘tis true this god did shake.
From Oedipus Rex
Upon the murderer I invoke this curse—whether he is one man and all
unknown,
Or one of many—may he wear out his life in misery to miserable doom!
From The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Coleridge
Water, water, everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.
63. Metaphor: A figure of speech using implied comparison of seemingly unlike things or the substitution of one for the other,
suggesting some similarity. Metaphorical language makes writing more vivid, imaginative, thought provoking, and
meaningful.
Example:
From John Donne’s “The Sun Rising”
She is all states, and all princes, I.
64. Metonymy: A term from the Greek meaning “changed label” or “substitute name,” metonymy is a figure of speech in which
the name of one object is substituted for that of another closely associated with it.
Examples:
From Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.
From Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind
I’m might glad Georgia waited till after Christmas before it secedes or it would have
ruined the Christmas parties.
From “Out, Out” by Robert Frost
As he swung toward them holding up the hand
Half in appeal, but half as if to keep
The life from spilling.
65. Mood: This term has two distinct technical meanings in English writing. The first meaning is grammatical and deals with
verbal units and a speaker’s attitude. The indicative mood is used only for factual sentences. For example, “Joe eats too
quickly.” The subjunctive mood is used for doubtful or conditional attitude. For example, “If I were you, I’d get another
job.” The imperative mood is used for commands. For example, “Shut the door!”
The second meaning of mood is literary, meaning the prevailing atmosphere or emotional aura of the work. In this
usage, mood is similar to tone and atmosphere.
66. Narrative: The telling of a story or an account of an event or series of events.
67. Onomatopoeia: A figure of speech in which natural sounds are imitated in the sounds of words. Simple examples include
buzz, hiss, crack. This term is not used in the multiple choice section.
68. Oxymoron: From the Greek “pointedly foolish,” it is a figure of speech wherein the author groups apparently contradictory
terms to suggest a paradox.
Examples:
From Romeo and Juliet, Act I, sc. i
Why, then, O brawling love! O loving hate!
O anything, of nothing first create!
O heavy lightness! Serious vanity!
Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms!
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!
Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!
This love feel I, that feel no love in this.
Dost thou not laugh?”
From Tennyson’s “Lancelot and Elaine”
the shackles of love straiten’d him
His honour rooted in dishonoured stood
And faith unfaithful kept him falsely true”
69. Paradox: A seemingly contradictory statement which is actually true. An oxymoron is a paradox consisting of two words.
A paradox itself often consists of multiple sentences.
Examples:
From Animal Farm by George Orwell
All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.
From Shakespeare’s Hamlet
I must be cruel to be kind.
70. Parallelism: Sentence construction which places in close proximity two or more equal grammatical constructions. Parallel
structure may be as simple as listing two or three modifiers in a row to describe the same noun or verb; it may also take the
form of two or more subordinate clauses that modify the same noun or verb. Or parallel structure may be a complex blend of
single-word, phrase, and clause parallelism all in the same sentence.
Examples:
From John Donne’s poem “Community”
Good we must love, and must hate ill,
For ill is ill, and good good still;
But there are things indifferent,
Which we may neither hate, nor love,
But one, and then another prove,
As we shall find our fancy bent.
From William Blake’s “The Tyger”
What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
71. Parody: An exaggerated imitation of a serious work for humorous purposes. The writer of a parody uses the quirks of style
of the imitated piece in extreme or ridiculous ways.
72. Pathos: Qualities of a fictional or nonfictional work that evoke sympathy, sorrow, or pity. Over-emotionalism can be the
result of excess pathos.
Example:
From “Sonnet 13” by Shakespeare
My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips’ red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
73. Pedantic: An adjective that describes words, phrases, or general tone that is overly scholarly, academic, or bookish.
74. Persona: A writer often adopts a fictional voice (or mask) to tell a story. Persona or voice is usually determined by an
examination of subject matter and audience.
75. Personification: Figurative language in which inanimate objects, animals, ideas, or abstractions are endowed with human
traits or form.
Examples:
From Emily Dickinson’s poem “Have You Got A Brook In Your Little Heart”
Have you got a brook in your little heart,
Where bashful flowers blow,
And blushing birds go down to drink,
And shadows tremble so?
From Katherine Mansfield’s short story “How Pearl Button Was Kidnapped”,
Pearl Button swung on the little gate in front of the House of Boxes. It was the early
afternoon of a sunshiny day with little winds playing hide-and-seek in it.
76. Point of View: The perspective from which a fictional or nonfictional story is told. First-person, third-person, or omniscient
points of view are commonly used.
77. Polysyndeton: Sentence which uses and or another conjunction (with no commas) to separate the items in a series.
Polysyndeton appears in the form of “X and Y and Z,” stressing equally each member of the series. It makes the sentence
slower and the items more emphatic than in the asyndeton.
Examples:
From Hemingway’s “After the Storm”
I said, ‘Who killed him?’ and he said ‘I don’t know who killed him, but he’s dead all right,’ and it
was dark and there was water standing in the street and no lights or windows broke and boats all
up in the town and trees blown down and everything all blown and I got a skiff and went out and
found my boat where I had her inside Mango Key and she was right only she was full of water.
From Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Let the whitefolks have their money and power and segregation and sarcasm and big houses and
schools and lawns like carpets, and books, and mostly–mostly–let them have their whiteness.
78. Prose: One of the major divisions of genre, prose refers to fiction and nonfiction, including all their forms, because they are
written in ordinary language and most closely resemble everyday speech. Technically, anything that isn’t drama or poetry is
prose.
79. Red Herring: A strategy used when a writer raises an irrelevant issue to draw attention away from the real issue.
80. Satire: A work that reveals a critical attitude toward some element of human behavior by portraying it in an extreme way.
Satire doesn’t simply abuse (as an invective) or get personal (as in sarcasm). Satire targets groups or large concepts rather
than individuals, often with the intent to invoke change.
81. Sarcasm: A type of verbal irony which is often abusive or personal in nature.
From “Mending Walls” by Robert Frost
Good fences make good neighbors.
82. Semantics: The branch of linguistics that studies the meaning of words, their historical and psychological development, their
connotations, and their relation to each other
83. Simile: A figurative comparison of two things, often dissimilar, using the connecting words “like” or “as.”
Examples:
From Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
I would have given anything for the power to soothe her frail soul, tormenting itself in its
invincible ignorance like a small bird beating about the cruel wires of a cage.
From Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse
. . . impressions poured in upon her of those two men, and to follow her thought was like
following a voice which speaks too quickly to be taken down by one’s pencil . . .
84. Soliloquy: A soliloquy is a dramatic speech delivered by a character revealing his innermost thoughts.
Example:
From Hamlet
To be, or not to be–that is the question:
Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
85. Style: The choices in diction, tone, and syntax that a writer makes. In combination they create a work’s manner of
expression. Style is thought to be conscious and unconscious and may be altered to suit specific occasions. Style is often
habitual and evolves over time.
86. Symbol: A thing, event, or person that represents of stands for some idea or event. Symbols also simultaneously retain their
own literal meanings.
87. Synecdoche: A synecdoche is a literary device in which a part represents the whole or a whole is used to represent a part.
Synecdoche is different from metonymy.
Examples:
From Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
The western wave was all a-flame.
The day was well was nigh done!
Almost upon the western wave
Rested the broad bright Sun”
From Shelly’s Ozymandias
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them.”
From The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad
At midnight I went on deck, and to my mate’s great surprise put the ship round on the other tack.
His terrible whiskers flitted round me in silent criticism.”
88. Syntax: The way an author chooses to join words into phrases, clauses, and sentences. Syntactic analysis usually examines
the typical length and complexity of a given author’s sentence structure.
89. Theme: The central idea of a work of fiction or nonfiction, revealed and developed in the course of a story or explored
through argument. The theme of a literary work is best expressed as a universal reference in the form of a complete thought
(or sentence) and reflecting the author’s attitude toward the subject.
90. Tone: A writer’s attitude toward his/her subject matter revealed through diction, imagery, details, language, and syntax.
91. Understatement: The ironic minimizing of fact, understatement presents something as less significant than it is. The effect
can frequently be humorous and emphatic. Understatement is the opposite of hyperbole.
Examples:
From Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye
I have to have this operation. It isn’t very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain.
92. Unity: A work of fiction or nonfiction is said to be unified if all the parts are related to one central idea or organizing
principle. Thus, unity is dependent upon coherence.
93. Verbal Irony: When the reader is aware of a discrepancy between the real meaning of a situation and the literal meaning of
the writer’s words.
94. Voice: The distinct identity of the author or character speaking in a work of fiction or nonfiction, usually identifiable by
means of tone, syntax, diction, language, imagery, and/or style analysis.
95. Wit: In modern usage, intellectually amusing the language that surprises and delights. A witty statement is humorous, while
suggesting the speaker’s verbal power in creating ingenious and perceptive remarks. Wit usually uses terse language that
makes a pointed statement. Historically, wit originally meant basic understanding. Its meaning evolved to include speed of
understanding, and finally (in the early seventeenth century), it grew to mean quick perception in cluding creative fancy.