Terms which might be useful for
the A.P. Literature Exam
From Barbara Swovelin’s list
Ad hominem argument
From the Latin meaning “to or
against the man,” this is an
argument that appeals to
emotion rather than reason, to
feeling rather than intellect.
alliteration
close repetition of consonant
sounds at beginning of words
allusion
brief reference to familiar
person/thing/incident (often
Biblical, historical, mythological
or literary)
apostrophe
directly addressing an absent or
imaginary person
assonance
repetition of vowel sounds
ballad
narrative poem, originally sung
(ballade: a French verse form)
bathos
excessive pathos
caesura
pause in line, dictated by rhythm
(“A little learning…..is a
dangerous thing)
consonance
close repetition of identical
consonant sounds around
different vowels
(flip-flop, or at the ends of words
(hid-bed)
couplet
two lines of verse, usually
rhymed and of same meter
denoument
events following the climax and
falling action (resolution)
Deus ex machina
“god from machine” (saves the
day)
diction
the choice of words and their
placement in sentences
dissonance
juxtaposition of jarring sounds
doggrel
rough, crudely written verse,
usually comic
elegy
dignified poem mourning death
end-stopped line
end of phrase or sentence
coincides with end of line
(poetry)
epic
extended narrative poem,
exalted in style and heroic in
theme
Epic (Homeric) simile
extended simile
epigram
short, witty statement, graceful
and ingenious
epilogue
final section of speech or written
work (peroration)
epiphany
“showing forth” (Greek), an
insight
epitaph
death inscription (“On the whole,
I’d rather be in Philadelphia” W.C.
Fields)
epithet
term used to characterize a
person (Jack the Ripper)
fable
truth narrative illustrating a
moral
Figurative language
makes use of figures of speech
(techniques comparing dissimilar
objects); specific figures of
speech are listed separately
foot
group of syllables forming
metrical unit:
iamb
trochee
anapest
dactyl
form
fixed metrical arrangement
Free verse
lacks regular meter and line
length (relies on natural rhythm;
most modern poetry)
gallows humor
black humor (like dead baby
jokes)
Genre
literary type or class, specific or
general (carpe diem poetry,
tragedy, novels, etc.)
Heroic couplet
pair of rhymed iambic
pentameter lines
hyperbole
deliberate exaggeration
imagery
language which evokes sensory
experiences; engaging sight,
smell, taste, etc.
irony
writer expresses a meaning contradictory
to stated or ostensible one:
 Verbal irony: attitude opposite to what
is literally stated.
 Dramatic irony: situation understood in
double sense by audience (and not by
characters on stage).
 Situational irony: circumstances turn out
to be reverse of those anticipated
litotes
or meiosis; understatement (in
Hamlet, “a play of some
interest”)
lyric
originally (Greek) sung to lyre;
lyric poetry expresses feelings of
speaker in words which have
musical qualities
metaphor
two unlike objects compared
(“Life is but a walking shadow”)
metonymy
figure of speech, name of object
substituted for another (“my
light [vision] is spent”)
meter
pattern of stressed and unstressed
syllables; see foot, a foot being the
metrical unit; the following terms refer to
number of feet per line: monometer,
dimeter, trimeter, tetrameter,
pentameter, hexameter, heptameter,
octometer. Iambic pentameter refers to a
line of five feet of iambs
motif
recurring image, character, verbal
pattern, etc.
Narrative verse
tells a story (as does anything
narrative)
ode
lyric poem of some length,
serious in subject and dignified in
style
onomatopoeia
words whose sounds express or
reinforce their meanings
Ottava rima
eight lines, iambic pentameter
(abababcc)
oxymoron
two apparently contradictory
terms (cold fires; conspicuous by
his absence)
Pathetic fallacy
human characteristics given to
inanimate objects
pathos
quality which evokes feelings of
pity, sympathy, tenderness, etc
persona
a “mask” which the author
assumes to speak to the audience
personification
inanimate objects endowed with
human qualities
Petrarchan sonnet
14 lines divided into two parts, an
octave (abbaabba) and sestet
(cdecde)
quatrain
stanza of four lines
repetition
duplication of an element of
language, such as a word, phrase,
clause, etc
Rhyme royal
7-line stanza in iambic
pentameter (ababbcc)
Shakespearean sonnet
14 lines, iambic pentameter (abab
cdcd efef gg or abba cddc effe gg)
simile
comparison using “like” or “as.”
Spenserian sonnet
same with rhyme of abab bcbc
cdcd ee
stanza
group of lines that form division
of a poem
style
the qualities that make up a
literary personality or way of
writing
syllogism
a deductive, logical argument,
formulated around one major
premise, one minor premise, and
a conclusion (e.g. All men are
mortal; Socrates is a man;
therefore, Socrates is mortal.)
symbol
something that stands for
something else, but also exists as
an entity itself (a hammer and
sickle for the USSR)
synecdoche
part represents the whole (all
hands on deck)
syntax
the choice of words and their
placement in sentences
tercet
a group of three lines rhyming
together or connected by rhyme
with the adjacent group or
groups of three lines
Terza rima
aba bcb cdc etc
tone
author’s attitude toward (can
also be towards audience or
both)
villanelle
a French fixed form (5 tercets
and a quatrain, all with two
rhymes)
Those are your terms, learn them and
use them when appropriate.