Literary Terms for AP English IV
allegory
Allegory occurs when one idea or object is represented in
the shape of another.
anagnorisis
In drama, the discovery of recognition that leads to the
peripety or reversal.
anecdote
A short narrative detailing particulars of an interesting
episode or event.
antistrophe
One of the three stanzaic forms of the Greek choral Ode,
the others being strophe and epode. It is identical in
meter with the strophe, which precedes it. As the chorus
sang the strophe, they moved from right to left; while
singing the antistrophe, they retraced these steps exactly,
moving back to the original position. In rhetoric
antistrophe is the reciprocal conversion of the same
words in succeeding phrases or clauses, as T.S. Eliot’s
“The desert in the garden the garden in the desert.”
aphaeresis
(uh-FEHR-uh-sus)
apocope
(uh-PAH-kuh-pee)
A type of elision in which a letter or syllable is omitted at the
beginning of a word, as ‘twas for it was.
A type of elision in which a letter or syllable is omitted at the
end of a word, as in morn for morning.
attitude
An author’s, speaker’s, character’s opinion of or feelings
toward a subject. Attitudes may shift either slightly or
from on extreme to the other. Authors often create
readers’ attitudes my manipulating characters’ attitudes.
burlesque
Any imitation of people or literary type that, by
distortion, aims to amuse. Burlesque tends to ridicule
faults, not serious vices.
aubade
A lyric about dawn or a morning serenade, a song of
lovers parting at dawn.
baroque
The baroque is a blending of picturesque elements (the
unexpected, the wild, the fantastic, the eccentric) with
the more ordered, formal style of the high Renaissance.
bathos
The effect resulting from the unsuccessful effort to
achieve dignity or sublimity of style; dropping from the
sublime to the ridiculous.
Breton Lay
(Romance)
A medieval French Metrical Romance, emphasizing love
as the central force in the plot. Breton romances drew
on the traditions of courtly love .
caesura
A pause or break in a line of verse. Originally, in
classical literature, the caesura characteristically divided
a foot between two works, usually near the middle of a
line.
comedy
Compared with tragedy, comedy is a lighter form of
drama that aims primarily to amuse. It differs from farce
and burlesque by having a more sustained plot, weightier
and subtler dialogue, more lifelike characters, and less
boisterous behavior.
conceit
A long, complex metaphor. The term designates fanciful
notion, usually expressed through an elaborate analogy
and pointing to a striking parallel between ostensibly
dissimilar things.
concrete poem
Poetry that exploits the graphic, visual aspect of writing;
a specialized application of what Aristotle called opsis
(“spectacle”). Poems in which the shape, not the words,
is often what matters. Also called emblematic poetry.
contra passo
Let the punishment fit the crime.
convention
A device of style or subject matter so often used that it
becomes a recognized means of expression.
critique
A critical examination of a work of art with a view to
determining its nature and assessing its value according
to some established standards. A critique is more
serious and judicious than a review.
detail
Items or parts that form a larger picture or story.
Authors choose or select details to create effects in their
works or evoke responses from the reader.
diction
Sometimes used informally to refer to crispness of
pronunciation. In linguistics, diction means word choice.
dramatic monologue The speaker in a dramatic monologue is usually a
fictional character or a historical figure caught at a
critical moment. His or her words are established by the
situation and are usually directed at a silent audience.
The speaker usually reveals aspects of his personality of
which he or she is unaware.
elegy
A poem that laments the death of a person, or one that is
simply sad and thoughtful.
elision
enjambment
(enjambement)
The omission of a letter or syllable as a means of contraction,
generally to achieve a uniform metrical pattern, but sometimes
to smooth the pronunciation; most such omissions are marked
with an apostrophe. Specific types of elision include
aphaeresis, apocope, syncope, and synalepha, most of which
can be found in Thomas Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country
Churchyard.”
The continuation of a complete idea (a sentence or
clause) from one line or couplet of a poem to the next
line or couplet without a pause. Enjambment occurs in
run-on lines and offers contrast to end-stopped lines.
epic question
The request or question addressed to the Muse at the
beginning of an epic; the answer constitutes the narrative
of the work.
epic simile
An elaborated comparison. The epic simile differs from
an ordinary simile in being more involved and ornate, in
a conscious imitation of the Homeric manner.
epiphany
Literally a manifestation or showing-forth, usually of
some divine being. It is thus an intuitive grasp of reality
achieved in a quick flash of recognition in which
something, usually simple and commonplace, is seen in a
new light.
exemplum
One section of the medieval sermon—the part which set
forth examples to illustrate the theme of text of the
sermon.
existentialism
A group of attitudes (current in philosophical, religious,
and artistic thought during and after the Second World
War) that emphasizes existence rather than essence and
sees the inadequacy of human reason to explain the
enigma of the universe as the basic philosophical
question.
Fabliaux
(fabliau)
A humorous tale (often sly, bawdy satire) popular in
medieval France. The conventional verse form of the
fabliau was the eight-syllable couplet.
feminine rhyme
An extra-metrical unstressed syllable added to the end of
a line in iambic or anapestic rhythm. The first four lines
in Hamlet’s “To be, or not to be—that is the question:”
soliloquy all have feminine endings.
hamartia
The error, frailty, mistaken judgment, or misstep through
which the fortunes of the hero of a tragedy are reversed.
Aristotle asserts that this hero should be a person “who
is not eminently good or just, yet whose misfortune is
brought about by some error or frailty.”
heroic couplet
Iambic pentameter lines rhymed in pairs.
Horatian Satire
Satire in which the voice is indulgent, tolerant, amused,
and witty. The speaker holds up to gentle ridicule the
absurdities and follies of human beings, aiming at
producing in the reader not the anger of a Juvenal but a
wry smile.
Juvenalian Satire
Formal satire in which the speaker attacks vice and error
with contempt and indignation. It is so called because it
is like the dignified satires of Juvenal.
kenning
A figurative phrase used in Old Germanic languages as a
synonym for a simple noun. Kennings are often
picturesque metaphorical compounds. Specimen
kennings from Beowulf are “the bent-necked wood,” for
ship; “the swan-road” for the sea.
litotes
A figure of speech in which a positive is stated by
negating its opposite. Some examples of litotes: no small
victory, not a bad idea, not unhappy. Litotes, which is a
form of understatement, is the opposite of hyperbole.
loose sentence
A sentence grammatically complete before the end; the
opposite of periodic sentence.
masculine rhyme
Rhyme that falls on the stressed, concluding syllables of
the rhyme words. “Mont” and “fount” make a masculine
rhyme, “mountain” and “fountain” make a feminine.
Metaphysical conceit
An ingenious kind of conceit widely used by the
metaphysical poets, who explored all areas of knowledge
to find, in the startlingly esoteric or the shockingly
commonplace, telling and unusual analogies for their
ideas. The metaphysical conceit often exploits verbal
logic to the point of the grotesque, and it sometimes
achieves such extravagant turns on meaning that it
becomes absurd.
Metaphysical poetry
The characteristics of the best metaphysical poetry
are logical elements in a technique intended to express
honestly, if unconventionally, the poet’s sense of life’s
complexities. The poetry is intellectual, analytical,
psychological, disillusioning, bold; absorbed in thoughts
of death, physical love, religious devotion.
narrative pace
The pace by which the story and events are developed.
These methods may include diction, syntax, dialogue,
shifts in tone, etc.
narrative techniques
Methods used in telling a story. These methods
include (but are not limited to) point of view (of the
writer), viewpoint (of a character), sequencing of events,
manipulation of time, dialogue, or interior monologue.
ode
A lyric poem that is serious and thoughtful in tone and
has a very precise, formal structure.
pathetic fallacy
A phrase coined by Ruskin to denote the tendency to
credit nature with human emotions. In a larger sense the
pathetic fallacy is any false emotionalism resulting in a
too impassioned description of nature. It becomes a
fault when it is overdone to the point of absurdity.
peripateia
The reversal of fortune for a protagonist—possibly either
a fall, as in a tragedy, or a success, as in a comedy.
stichomythia
A form of repartee developed in classical drama and
often employed by Elizabethan writers. It is a sort of
line-for-line verbal fencing match in which the principals
retort sharply to each other in lines that echo and vary
the opponent’s words. Antithesis is freely used.
synalepha
(sin-uh-LEE-fuh)
syncope
(SIN-koh-pee)
A type of elision in which a vowel at the end of one word is
coalesced with one beginning the next word, as “th’ embattled
plain.”
A type of elision in which a word is contracted by removing
one or more letters or syllables from the middle, as in ne’er for
never.
syntax
The structure of a sentence; the juxtaposition of words in
a sentence. Discussion of syntax in a work could include
discussion of the length or brevity of sentences, the
kinds of sentences (declarative, interrogative,
exclamatory, imperative sentences, rhetorical questions;
periodic or loose sentences; simple, complex, or
compound sentences) and the impact on the reader of the
author’s choice of sentence structure.
terza rima
A three-line stanza, supposedly devised by Dante with
rhyme scheme aba bcb cdc ded and so forth. In other
words one rhyme sound is used for the first and third
lines of each stanza, and a new rhyme introduced for the
second line, this new rhyme, in turn, being used for the
first and third lines of the next stanza. The opening of
Shelley’s “Ode to the West Wind” is written in terza rima.
trope
In rhetoric a trope is a figure of speech involving a “turn”
or change of sense—the use of a word in a sense other
than the literal.
tone
The writer’s attitude toward his or subject matter. For example,
the tone can be angry, compassionate, melancholy, allusive, etc.
verisimilitude
The semblance of truth. The term indicates the degree to
which a work creates the appearance of the truth.
villanelle
A fixed nineteen-line form, originally French, employing
only two thymes and repeating two of the lines according
to a set pattern. Line 1 is repeated as lines 6, 12, and 18;
line 3 as lines 9, 15, and 19. The first and third lines
return as a rhymed couplet at the end. The finest
villanelle in any language—and one of the greatest
modern poems in any form—is Dylan Thomas’s “Do Not
Go Gentle into That Good Night.”
voice
The term, voice, while often used synonymously with speaker
or persona, can also refer to a pervasive presence behind the
fictitious voices that speak in a work, or to Aristotle’s “ethos,”
the element in a work that creates a perception by the audience
or reader of the moral qualities of the speaker or a character.
volta
The turn in thought—from question to answer, problem
to solution—that occurs at the beginning of the sestet in
the Italian sonnet. The volta sometimes occurs in the
Shakespearean sonnet between the twelfth and the
thirteenth lines. The volta is routinely marked at the
beginning of line 9 (Italian) or 13 (Shakespearean) by but,
yet, or and yet.
uxoriousness
Excessively fond of or submissive to a wife. (Mr.
McCollom’s favorite word in the world!)