AP Lit POETRY TERMS
All the terms you’ll need to know!!
Sound Devices
• Alliteration: Repetition of similar or identical
initial consonant sounds: the giggling girl gave
me gum.
• Assonance: Repetition of similar or identical
vowel sounds: The thin man grinned at the
win.
• Consonance: The repetition of similar
consonant sounds in groups of words: “add”
and “read,” “bill” and “ball.”
Other sound devices…
• Cacophony: describes words that are harsh
sounding—crackle, dragon, crunchy, etc…
• Euphony: describes words that are pleasant
sounding and melodious—flower, sea, happy,
pepper, etc…
Figurative Language
• Simile: Comparison of two UNLIKE things
using “like” or “as”—The sea was like a
monster.
• Metaphor: Comparison of two UNLIKE things
NOT using “like” or “as”—The sea was a
monster thrashing around.
• Hyperbole: An intentional exaggeration used
for effect—The teacher gave me so much
information that my brain hurt.
Figurative Language, Cont.
• Personification: Giving human characteristics to a nonhuman object or animal—The bear looked questioningly at
me.
• Types of Metaphors:
• Synecdoche: Using a part to represent a whole or a whole
to represent a part--•All hands on deck.
• Metonymy: Using a word we associate with something in
place of the actual word--The White House asked the
television networks for air time on Monday night.
• These two are often confused!! Be careful. They are both
considered to be types of metaphors.
More figurative Language…
• Conceit: In literature, a conceit is an extended
metaphor with a complex logic that governs a
poetic passage or entire poem. By juxtaposing,
usurping and manipulating images and ideas
in surprising ways, a conceit invites the reader
into a more sophisticated understanding of an
object of comparison. This may be a brief
metaphor, or it may be consist of an entire
poem.
And still more…
• Extended metaphor: this is a metaphor where the
comparison is carried out through an entire stanza or
even the whole poem. Ex:
"This night is the comfort,
Of a hug from mother to child.
It is the warmth and security,
Of love and compassion so tender.
This night is the nightmare,
The one that started it all.
It is what I fear most,
And the only thing I find serenity in."
Other terms…
• Allusion: A reference to an historical event,
place, or mythological god or goddess. Biblical
allusions are quite common in the literary
cannon.
• Apostrophe: A figure of speech in which a
character or speaker addresses something or
somebody who cannot respond as though
it/he can act.
More other terms…
• Caesura: A pause near the end or middle of a
line of verse, usually indicated by the sense of
the line. The pause is greater than a normal
pause—”To err is human, to forgive divine.”
• Diction; the word choices used by an
author/poet
• Didactic poetry: poetry that is intended to
teach a lesson
Still more!! 
• Dramatic poem: a poem where the dramatic form
is employed as a means of achieving dramatic
ends
• Elegy: A poem with a mournful subject
throughout (death, etc…)
• End-Stopped Line: A line with a pause at the end.
Lines that end with a period, comma, colon,
semi-colon, exclamation point, or question mark.
EX: “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”

• Enjambment: the continuation of the sense AND
grammatical construction from one line of poetry
to the next—Ex:
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet
breathing.
Imagery
• Imagery is writing that appeals to any of the
five senses. It helps create IMAGES in poetry
and prose. EX:
http://www.frostfriends.org/imagery.html
Meter
• The repetition of a regular rhythmic unit in a line of
poetry. The meter of a poem emphasizes the musical
quality of the poem. AP Lit students SHOULD KNOW
AND BE ABLE TO ANALYZE THESE!!!
• Poetic Feet:
Iambic
u/
trochaic / u
Anapestic u u /
Dactylic / u u
Pyrrhic
uu
Spondaic / /
Refrain
•
A refrain is a word or group of words that is repeated in a poem, usually at the end of a stanza
EX: Well, son, I'll tell you:
Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
It's had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor—
Bare.
But all the time
I'se been a-climbin' on,
And reachin' landin's,
And turnin' corners,
And sometimes goin' in the dark
Where there ain't been no light.
So, boy, don't you turn back.
Don't you set down on the steps.
'Cause you finds it's kinder hard.
Don't you fall now—
For I'se still goin', honey,
I'se still climbin',
And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
--Langston Hughes
Rhythm
• Rhythm is the recurrence of stressed and
unstressed syllables. The presence of rhythmic
patterns should create pleasure and
heightened emotion in the reader.
Scansion
• Scansion is the system for describing the meter of a
poem by identifying the number and types of feet per
line. Common types:
• Monometer
one foot per line
• Dimeter
two feet per line
• Trimeter
three feet per line
• Tetrameter
four feet per line
• Pentameter
five feet per line
• Hexameter
six feet per line
• Heptameter
seven feet per line
• Octameter
eight feet per line
More terms…
• Style: Style refers to the way the author expresses
language. This class is 100% style analysis!!
• Syntax: The ordering of words into patterns or
sentences. The author’s use of syntax can tell us
about time period, mood, etc…
• Theme: The theme is the main idea expressed in
a work. Subject is easy to find. What the author
says about the subject often needs
interpretation!!
Still more!! 
• Symbol: An object, color, person that
represents something much larger than itself.
EX: winter, cold = death, decay, etc…
-TONE: The manner in which an author
expresses his attitude; the intonation of the
voice that expresses meaning. TONE is the result
of DICTION, SYNTAX, IMAGERY, ALLUSIONS,
IRONY, STYLE, and SYMBOLISM!
Rhyme
• Blank Verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter
• Couplet: two-line rhyming stanza
• Eye rhyme: rhyme that appears correct from
the spelling of the words but is actually a halfrhyme or slant rhyme from the pronunciation.
Ex: “watch” and “match”
• Feminine rhyme: a rhyme of two syllables, one
stressed and one unstressed. Ex: “waken” and
“forsaken” and “audition” and “rendition”
More Rhyme…
• Masculine rhyme: rhyme that falls on the
stressed and concluding syllables of the
rhymed words. Ex: “keep” and “sleep” and
“spell” and “impel”
• Heroic Couplet: two end-stopped iambic
pentameter lines rhymed aa, bb, cc, etc… with
the thought usually completed in the entire
two-line unit. Refer to The Rape of the Lock.
And more Rhyme…
• Internal Rhyme: rhyme that occurs within a
line, rather than at the end of lines. EX: “Once
upon a midnight DREARY, while I pondered
weak and WEARY…”
One more thing…
• STUDY ALL OTHER NOTES ALONG WITH
THESE!! THE QUIZ CAN COVER ANY NOTES.