AP English Literature &
Composition
Rhetorical Terms
Syntax, Poetry, and Sound
Ms. Storm
As AP Lit. students, I expect that
you already know the meanings of:
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Metaphor
Simile
Figurative language
Allusion
Hyperbole
Analogy
Oxymoron
Paradox
Personification
Symbol
Understatement
Diction: denotation, connotation
Conflict
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Imagery
Foreshadowing
Mood
Plot
Point of view
Setting
Tone
Theme
Characterization
Protagonist
Antagonist
These are the basics that we will build on to achieve deeper, more analytical readings of texts.
This PPT
• This PPT explains terms that you may not
have known coming into AP Literature.
• After looking at these, you are responsible
for identifying them when present and
being able to analyze how they contribute
to the meaning of the text.
Sentence structure
SYNTAX
Syntax
• Syntax simply means “sentence structure.”
– Authors oftentimes use sentence structure to
create meaning by emphasizing certain ideas,
mirroring the idea of the sentence, or even
using punctuation in a certain way.
Syntax
• There are many ways to analyze syntax,
including:
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Function/purpose
Length
Arrangement of ideas
Repetition
Punctuation
etc.
Function/Purpose
• Declarative: makes a statement
– It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in
possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
• Interrogative: asks a question (?)
– "Do you not want to know who has taken it?" cried his wife
impatiently.
• Exclamatory: exclaims something (!)
– "Oh! Single, my dear, to be sure!”
• Imperative: makes a command
– “go and see Mr. Bingley when he comes into the
neighbourhood.”
Length
• Telegraphic sentence: a very short sentence,
usually of five or less words
– “Call me Ishmael.”
– Often used for emphasis, to create a terse or annoyed tone, to
quicken the pace.
Length
• Long: … a long sentence.
– “For a moment the boy thought too that the man meant his older
brother until Harris said, ‘Not him. The little one. The boy,’ and,
crouching, small for his age, small and wiry like his father, in
patched and faded jeans even too small for him, with straight,
uncombed, brown hair and eyes gray and wild as storm scud, he
saw the men between himself and the table part and become a lane
of grim faces, at the end of which he saw the justice, a shabby,
collarless, graying man in spectacles, beckoning him.”
– Often used to indicate stream of consciousness, confusion, rapid
thought, multiplicity/extensiveness of ideas
Arrangement of Ideas
• Cumulative sentence: a sentence that begins with
the main idea and then expands upon it in later
clauses.
– “I write this at a wide desk in a pine shed as I always do
these recent years, in this life I pray will last, while the
summer sun closes the sky to Orion and to all the other
winter stars over my roof.”
• Periodic sentence: a sentence that ends with the
main idea and expands upon it in previous clauses.
– “With two raw blisters and now unable to carry my pack
due to two broken ribs and broken collar bone, I stared at
my dead phone pleadingly.”
Arrangement of Ideas
• Chiasmus: arrangement of repeated
thoughts in an X Y Y X pattern
– “Fair is foul, and foul is fair”
Repetition
• Anadiplosis: repetition of the last word of one
clause at the beginning of the following clause
– “Aboard my ship, excellent performance is standard.
Standard performance is sub-standard. Substandard performance is not permitted to exist.”
• Anaphora: repetition of initial clauses
– “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it
was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…”
Repetition
• Epistrophe: repetition of phrases at the
ends of clauses (opposite of anaphora)
– “We are born to sorrow, pass our time
in sorrow, end our days in sorrow.”
Other
• Parallelism: Similarity of structure in a pair or
series of related words, phrases, or clauses.
– “King Alfred tried to make the law clear, precise,
and equitable.” (all adjectives)
• Fragment: an incomplete sentence (i.e. missing a
subject, verb, or complete thought).
– “A risk to own anything: a car, a pair of shoes, a
packet of cigarettes. Not enough to go around, not
enough cars, shoes, cigarettes. Too many people, too
few things.”
Other
• Asyndenton: sentence that lists without
conjunctions
– “her daughters, alarmed, anxious, uneasy.”
• Polysyndenton: sentence that lists using
many conjunctions
– “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 and windows
broke and boats…”
The most intense, concentrated form of
the human experience
POETRY
Meter
• Meter: a regular pattern of syllables
(unstressed and stressed)
• Foot: metrical units that consist of some
pattern of unstressed and stressed
syllables
Meter
Feet
Line Length
Iambic (unstressed – stressed)
One foot: monometer
Trochaic (stressed – unstressed)
Two feet: dimeter
Anapestic (unstressed –
unstressed – stressed)
Three feet: trimeter
Dactylic (stressed – unstressed –
unstressed)
Four feet: tetrameter
Five feet: pentameter
e.g. if you have an anapestic pattern that repeats four times in a line, you have
anapestic tetrameter. You should absolutely know iambic for the AP test.
Rhyme
• End rhyme: last word of two different
lines rhyme
• Internal rhyme: rhyme within a single
line
– “To the rhyming and chiming of the bells!”
• Slant rhyme: inexact end rhyme (e.g.
“stone” and “gone”)
Parts of Poems
• Stanza: a “paragraph” within a poem; a
grouping of lines often separated from
others by a blank line
• Shift: a rhetorical shift or dramatic
change within a poem, usually at a stanza
break (but not always)
Types of Poems
• Elegy: a poem that mourns the death of someone or something (e.g.
“O Captain! My Captain” by Whitman, lamenting the death of
Abraham Lincoln)
• Epic: a long poem that narrates the events in a hero’s life (e.g.
Homer’s The Odyssey)
• Ode: a poem of praise, often written in an elevated style (e.g. “Ode
to a Nightingale” by Keats)
• Lyric: a songlike poem that contains strong personal emotions
• Sonnet: a 14 line poem written in iambic pentameter [there are
many types of sonnets, we will focus on the Shakespearean sonnet]
Shakespearean Sonnet-Specific
Terms
• Quatrain: group
of four lines
• Volta: the “turn”
(indicating a shift)
between lines 8
and 9
• Heroic couplet:
the final two lines;
the “key” to the
poem’s theme
Quatrain 1
(lines 1-4)
Quatrain 2
(lines 5-8)
Volta
Quatrain 3
(lines 9-12)
Heroic couplet
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 damask'd, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
& Sense
SOUND
Sound
• Alliteration: repetition of initial consonant
sounds
– “The weeping willow waves”
• Assonance: the repetition of vowel sounds
within two or more words of close proximity
– “lake” and “fate”
• Consonance: the repetition of consonant sounds
within two or more words of close proximity
– “Nick dropped the locket in the thick mud”
Sound
• Euphony: musical, pleasant sounds
– “The Oars divide the Ocean, / Too silver for a
seam”
• Cacophony: harsh, discordant sounds
– “My stick fingers click with a snicker”
• Note: this is also an example of consonance.
Sound
• Onomatopoeia: sound words, like
“boom,” “pop,” “hiss,” etc.