Poetic / Literary Devices
AP Literature and Composition
Ms. Vivian, thank you for sharing your world with us.
A
Aesthetics - philosophical investigation into the nature of beauty and the perception of
beauty, especially in the arts; the theory of art or artistic taste
Allegory - a story or visual image with a second distinct meaning partially hidden behind its
literal or visible meaning. In written narrative, allegory involves a continuous parallel between
two (or more) levels of meaning in a story, so that its persons and events correspond to their
equivalents in a system of ideas or a chain of events external to the tale.
Alliteration - the repetition of the same consonant sounds, usually at the beginning of a word
or stressed syllable
Allusion - an indirect or passing reference to some event, person, place, or artistic work, the
nature and relevance of which is not explained by the writer but relies on the reader’s
familiarity with what is thus mentioned
Ambiguity - a statement which can contain two or more meanings
Analogy – a resemblance of relations; an agreement or likeness between things in some
circumstances or effects, when the things are otherwise entirely different
Anaphora - repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or
sentences, e.g. “We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France.”
Anecdote – a very short tale told by a character in a literary work.
Antagonist - the character, force, or collection of forces in fiction or drama that opposes the
protagonist and gives rise to the conflict of the story
Anti-hero - a protagonist who has the opposite of most of the traditional attributes of a hero a character who may be bewildered, ineffectual, deluded, or merely pathetic
Aphorism - a brief statement which expresses an observation on life, usually intended as a
wise observation
Apostrophe – a figure of speech wherein the speaker speaks directly to something nonhuman
in absentia
Archetype – a term used to describe universal symbols that evoke deep and sometimes
unconscious responses in a reader. In literature, characters, images, and themes that
symbolically embody universal meanings and basic human experiences.
Aside – a device in which a character in a drama makes a short speech which is heard by the
audience but not by other characters in the play
Assonance – the repetition at close intervals of vowel sounds of accented syllables or
important words (rent/vent)
Asyndeton - the omission of a conjunction from a list (‘chips, beans, peas, cheese, French
fries, brownies’)
B
Ballad – a type of lyrical poetry that conveys sentimental emotion
Blank verse – unrhymed iambic pentameter. Think Shakespeare
C
Canon - in literature, the most representative or central works considered influential in
shaping a period or genre
Carpe Diem – a theme, especially common in lyric poetry, emphasizing that life is short, time
is fleeting, and one should make the most of present pleasures. (Latin—Seize the day.)
Catharsis - describes the release of the emotions of pity and fear by the audience at the end
of a tragedy. The audience faces the misfortunes of the protagonist, which elicit pity and
compassion. Simultaneously, the audience also confronts the failure of the protagonist, thus
receiving a frightening reminder of human limitations and frailties. Think Aristotle’s Poetics.
Character – any of the persons involved in a story/the distinguishing moral qualities and
personal traits of a character
dynamic character – a character who, during the course of
the story, undergoes a permanent change in some aspect of
personality or outlook
static character – a character who is the same sort of person
at the end of the story as in the beginning (unchanging ideals,
appearance, etc.)
flat character – a character who has little to no distinguishing
traits or features
round character – a character who is complex and multi- dimensional
Chiasmus - a verbal pattern in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first
but with the parts reversed. (“Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for
your country.”)
Climax - the decisive moment or turning point of a plot to which the rising action leads.
Colloquialism - spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech
Comedy - a literary work which is amusing and ends happily. Modern comedies tend to be funny,
while Shakespearean comedies simply end well.
Comic relief – a humorous scene or incident that alleviates tension in an otherwise serious work.
These moments tend to enhance the thematic significance in addition to providing laughter.
Conceit-also known as extended metaphor, a literary conceit consistently compares two highly
dissimilar objects or ideas.
Connotation - the emotional implications and associations that words may carry, as distinguished
from their denotative meanings
Consonance – the repetition at close intervals of the mid or final consonant sounds
Couplet – two successive lines, usually in the same meter, linked by rhyme
heroic couplet – a couplet written in rhymed iambic pentameter
D
Denotation - the basic dictionary meaning of a word, as opposed to its connotative
meaning
Denouement – the part of a plot that reveals the final outcome of its conflicts or the solution of
its mysteries
Deus ex machina - an unrealistic or unexpected intervention to rescue the protagonists or
resolve a conflict. The term means “The god out of the machine,” and refers to stage
machineryin Greek drama.
Diction - an author’s choice of words. Since words have specific meanings, and since one’s choice
of words can affect feelings, a writer’s choice of words can greatly impact literary meaning.
Dystopia - a literary genre that explores a typically fictional society characterized by human
misery, squalor, oppression, and authoritarian control, oftentimes disguised as utopian.
E
Elegy - a mournful or contemplative lyric poem written to commemorate someone who
is dead, often ending in consolation
End-stopped line - a line that ends with a natural speech pause, usually marked by punctuation
Enjambment - one line of poetry that ends without a pause and continues into to the next; a line
which has no natural speech pause at its end, allowing the sense to flow uninterruptedly into the
succeeding line
Epic - a long narrative poem, told in a formal elevated style, that focuses on a serious subject and
chronicles heroic deeds and events important to a culture or nation
Epigram – a brief, pointed, and witty saying that usually makes a satiric or humorous point
Epiphany - some moment of insight, discovery, or revelation by which a character's life of view of
life is greatly altered
Existentialism – a form of literary criticism that emphasizes the struggle to define meaning and
identity in the midst of isolation and alienation
Exposition - a narrative device, often at the beginning of a work, that provides necessary
background information about the characters and their circumstances
F
Farce - a type of drama related to comedy but emphasizing improbable situations,
violent conflicts, physical action, and coarse wit over characterization or articulated plot
Figurative language - language employing figures of speech; language that cannot be taken
literally or only literally
Flashback – a device that allows the writer to present events that happened before the time of
the current narration or the current events in the fiction
Foil – a character used to contrast with another character (usually the protagonist) to highlight
particular qualities
Foot - the basic syllabic unit used in the scansion of verse
Form - the external pattern or shape of a poem without reference to actual content (aka
structure)
Free verse – poetry that follows neither form nor rhyme
Freudianism – a form of literary criticism that uses Freud’s psychoanalytical theories to
interpret a work in terms of known psychological conflicts of the author and/or characters
G
Genre - a recognizable and established category of written work (stylistic and/or historical) employing
F conventions recognizable to readers Gothic – genre or characterization characterized by gloom,
common
mystery and the grotesque
Gothic – genre or characterization characterized by gloom, mystery and the grotesque
H
F
Hamartia – a protagonist’s serious character flaw (typically hubris) that often results in self-fulfilling
tragedy (aka tragic flaw)
Hubris –arrogance or excessive self-pride and confidence serving as a common conflict in Greek tragedies and
mythology, whose stories often featured protagonists suffering from hubris and subsequently being punished
by the gods for it
Humanism – the Renaissance social philosophy that favored a more secular return to classics, appreciation of
worldly pleasures, and emphasis on individual expression
Hyperbole - a figure of speech in which extravagant exaggeration is used in the service of truth
I
– a common poetic meter consisting of five iambs (two-syllable patterns of
F Iambic pentameter
unstressed/stressed
= 10 syllables)
Imagery - the collection of images within a literary work used to evoke atmosphere, mood, and/or tension
In media res - in or into the middle of a sequence of events, as in a literary narrative
Invective – insulting, abusive, or highly critical language commonly used in Juvenalian satire
Irony - a situation, or a use of language, involving some kind of incongruity or discrepancy contrary to
expectation
verbal irony - a figure of speech in which what is said is the
opposite of what is meant
dramatic irony - an incongruity or discrepancy between what a
character says or thinks and what the reader knows to be true
situational irony - a situation in which there is an incongruity
between appearance and reality, or between expectation and
fulfillment, or between the actual situation and what would
seem appropriate
J
F
L
F
M
F
Juxtaposition - deliberately placing dissimilar ideas or statements side by side for comparison
Litote - understatement that occurs by claiming the opposite of what is intended (e.g. he is not ugly.)
Metaphor - a figure of speech in which an implicit comparison is made between two things
essentially unlike
Metaphysical Poetry - although sometimes used in the broad sense of philosophical poetry, the term usually
applies to the work of seventeenth-century poets, such as John Donne. Metaphysical poetry is characterized
by the use of conceits, condensed metaphorical language, unusual comparisons between medicine, love,
death, and religion, and complex imagery.
Meter – regular patterns of rhythm, an arrangement of language in which the accents occur at apparently
equal intervals in time. The number of feet in a line forms a means of describing the meter.
*The standard meters are as follows:
monometer - a metrical line containing one foot
dimeter - a metrical line containing two feet
trimeter - a metrical line containing three feet
tetrameter - a metrical line containing four feet
pentameter - a metrical line containing five feet
hexameter – a metrical line containing six feet
heptameter – a metrical line containing seven feet
octameter – a metrical line containing eight feet
*The rhythmic unit within the line is called a foot. The
standard feet are:
iamb - (u') A metrical foot consisting of one unaccented
syllable followed by one accented syllable (to-day)
trochee - ('u) A metrical foot consisting of one accented
syllable followed by one unaccented syllable (hap-py)
anapest - (uu') A metrical foot consisting of two
unaccented syllables followed by one accented
syllable (un-der-stand)
dactyl - ('uu) A metrical foot consisting of one accented
syllable followed by two unaccented syllables
(mer-ri-ly)
Metonymy - A figure of speech in which a word represents something else which it suggests. For example,
when referring to the President of the United States, a statement might be issued by the White House.)
Modernism – a genre usually considered within the 20th century. Modernism is marked by radical new
innovations and the subsequent sense of dislocation and alienation, as well as the idea that centuries-old
accepted ways of understanding the world were disintegrating; standards of religion, politics, family, gender,
science, economic progress, and increased urbanization were all called into question.
Moral - a rule of conduct or maxim for living expressed or implied as the "point" of a literary work
Motif - a recurring image, word, phrase, represented object or action that tends to unify the literary work or
that may be elaborated into a more general
theme
N
F
Narrator - one who tells a story, the speaker or the “voice” of an oral or written work that may
demonstrate bias depending on the presented point of view. Never ever ever confuse author with speaker.
Unreliable narrator – a speaker typically displaying characteristics or tendencies that indicate a lack of
credibility or understanding; common with 1st person
POV, an unreliable narrator may provide the reader with incomplete or inaccurate information .
O
F
Onomatopoeia - the use of words that supposedly mimic their meaning in their sound (boom, click,
plop).
Oxymoron - a compact paradox, one in which two successive words apparently contradict each other
P
F Parallelism- the repetition of words, phrases, or sentences that have the same grammatical structure
or that restate a similar idea
Paradox - a statement or situation containing apparently contradictory or incompatible elements, a figure of
speech in which an apparently self-contradictory statement is nevertheless found to be true
Paraphrase - a restatement of the content of a poem designed to make its prose meaning as clear as possible
Parody- a literary form in which the style of an author or particular work is mocked in its style for the sake of
comic effect
Pastoral - of, relating to, or being a literary or other artistic work that portrays or evokes rural life, usually in
an idealized way
Pathos - the rhetorical quality in art and literature that stimulates pity, tenderness, or sorrow
Personification – a figure of speech in which human attributes are given to an animal, an object, or a concept
Point of view - the narrative angle from which a story is told:
first person - the story is told by one of its characters,
using the first person (I/we, etc.)
second person - the story is told by one of its
characters using second-person pronouns (you.)
third person omniscient - the author tells the story
knowing all and is free to tell anything, including what
the characters are thinking or feeling and why they act
as they do.
third person limited omniscient - the author tells the story
but limits her/himself to a complete knowledge of one
character in the story and tells only what that one
character thinks, feels, sees, or hears.
third person objective - the author tells the story but limits
her/himself to reporting what his characters say or do;
s/he does not interpret their behavior or tell their private
thoughts or feelings.
Prose - non-metrical language, the opposite of verse
Prose poem - usually a short composition having the intentions of poetry but written in prose rather than
verse
Pun – a play on words based on the similarity of sound between two different words with different meanings
Q
F
Quatrain - a four-line stanza or a four-line division of a sonnet marked off by its rhyme scheme
R
F Realism- a literary technique depicting the struggles and accurate portrayals of middle-class life
Refrain -a repeated word, phrase, line, or group of lines
Rhetoric- the art of persuasive argument through writing or speech. Common appeals include logos (logic,)
ethos (reputation)and pathos (emotion)
Rhetorical question - a question with an obvious answer, so no response is expected; used for emphasis or to
make a point
Rhyme - the repetition of the accented vowel sound and all succeeding sounds
end rhyme – occurs when both rhyming words are at the end of the lines
feminine rhyme – occurs when the rhyming sounds involve more than one syllable (turtle-fertile,
spitefullydelightfully)
internal rhyme - occurs when one or both rhyming words are within a line
masculine rhyme – occurs when the sounds involve only one syllable (decks-wrecks or support-retort)
eye rhyme - occurs when words physically look the same but are pronounced differently (move/love)
Rhyme scheme - any fixed pattern of rhymes characterizing a whole poem or its stanzas. Scheme is notated
through the use of lowercase alphabet letters matching each end rhyme
Romanticism - a genre that was a reaction to the classicism of the early 18th century, which favored feeling
over reason and placed great emphasis on the subjective, or personal, experience of the individual. Nature
and spirituality were also major themes.
S
F
Sarcasm - bitter or cutting speech; speech intended by its speaker to give pain to the person
addressed
Satire – a kind of literature that ridicules human folly or vice with the purpose of bringing about reform or of
keeping others from falling into similar folly or vice: Juvenalian (bitter) or Horatian (gentle)
Scansion - the process of measuring verse, that is, of marking accented and unaccented syllables, dividing the
lines into feet, identifying the metrical pattern, and noting significant variations from that pattern
Sestet - a six-line stanza or the last six lines of a sonnet
Setting - the context in time and place in which the action of a story occurs
Simile - a figure of speech in which an explicit comparison is made between two things essentially unlike. The
comparison is made explicit by the use of some such word or phrase as like, as, than, similar to, resembles, or
seems.
Soliloquy – a speech in which a character, alone on the stage, addresses himself; a soliloquy is a "thinking out
loud," a dramatic means of letting an audience know a character's thoughts and feelings
Sonnet – a type of poetic structure using 14 lines in iambic pentameter to express a uniform thought with a
reversal or answer at the end
Italian/Petrarchan sonnet – original form where the 14 lines are divided such that the octave uses a
rhyme
scheme of abbaabba and the sestet as a combination of
cdecde. This typically includes a volta (turn or shift) from the octave to the sestet
English/Shakespearean sonnet – three quatrains followed by a couplet with an alternating rhyme
scheme of ababcdcdefefgg. The quatrains typically set up an argument that the couplet addresses.
Stream of consciousness – a technique that records the multifarious thoughts and feelings of a character
without regard to logical argument or narrative sequence
Structure - the internal organization of a poem's content
Symbolism - a figure of speech in which something (object, person, situation, or action) means more than
what it is. A symbol, in other words, may be read both literally and metaphorically.
Synecdoche – a subset of metonymy where a part is substituted for a whole or a whole for a part, as in 50
head of cattle for 50 cows, or the army for a soldier
Syntax - the way in which linguistic elements (words and phrases) are arranged to form grammatical structure
T
- the central idea or unifying generalization implied or stated by a literary work
F - theTheme
Tone
writer's or speaker's attitude toward subject matter, audience, or her/himself; the emotional
coloring, or emotional meaning, of a work
Tragedy – a type of drama, opposed to comedy, in which the protagonist, a person of unusual moral or
intellectual stature or outstanding abilities, suffers a fall in fortune because of some error of judgment,
excessive virtue, or flaw in her/his nature
U
Understatement - a figure of speech that consists of saying less than one means, or of saying what
Fmeans with less force than the occasion warrants
one
V
Verisimilitude - the sense that what one reads is "real," or at least realistic and believable; may be
F in context with portrayals of character or plot
used
Voice- in writing, a metaphor drawn from the spoken, encompassing the writer’s tone, style, and manner
W
F
Wit – generally refers to clever, intellectual uses of language to arouse laughter or social commentary
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