Terms which might be useful for the A.P. Literature Exam

by Kathleen CurranFrom Barbara Swovelin’s list

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.

Ad hominem argument

close repetition of consonant sounds at beginning of words

alliteration

brief reference to familiar person/thing/incident (often Biblical, historical, mythological or literary)

allusion

directly addressing an absent or imaginary person

apostrophe

repetition of vowel sounds

assonance

narrative poem, originally sung (ballade: a French verse form)

ballad

excessive pathos

bathos

pause in line, dictated by rhythm (“A little learning…..is a dangerous thing)

caesura

close repetition of identical consonant sounds around different vowels (flip-flop, or at the ends of words (hid-bed)

consonance

two lines of verse, usually rhymed and of same meter

couplet

events following the climax and falling action (resolution)

denoument

“god from machine” (saves the day)

Deus ex machina

the choice of words and their placement in sentences

diction

juxtaposition of jarring sounds

dissonance

rough, crudely written verse, usually comic

doggrel

dignified poem mourning death

elegy

end of phrase or sentence coincides with end of line (poetry)

end-stopped line

extended narrative poem, exalted in style and heroic in theme

epic

extended simile

Epic (Homeric) simile

short, witty statement, graceful and ingenious

epigram

final section of speech or written work (peroration)

epilogue

“showing forth” (Greek), an insight

epiphany

death inscription (“On the whole, I’d rather be in Philadelphia” W.C. Fields)

epitaph

term used to characterize a person (Jack the Ripper)

epithet

truth narrative illustrating a moral

fable

makes use of figures of speech (techniques comparing dissimilar objects); specific figures of speech are listed separately

Figurative language

group of syllables forming metrical unit:

iamb trocheeanapest dactyl

foot

fixed metrical arrangement

form

lacks regular meter and line length (relies on natural rhythm; most modern poetry)

Free verse

black humor (like dead baby jokes)

gallows humor

literary type or class, specific or general (carpe diem poetry, tragedy, novels, etc.)

Genre

pair of rhymed iambic pentameter lines

Heroic couplet

deliberate exaggeration

hyperbole

language which evokes sensory experiences; engaging sight, smell, taste, etc.

imagery

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

irony

or meiosis; understatement (in Hamlet, “a play of some interest”)

litotes

originally (Greek) sung to lyre; lyric poetry expresses feelings of speaker in words which have musical qualities

lyric

two unlike objects compared (“Life is but a walking shadow”)

metaphor

figure of speech, name of object substituted for another (“my light [vision] is spent”)

metonymy

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

meter

recurring image, character, verbal pattern, etc.

motif

tells a story (as does anything narrative)

Narrative verse

lyric poem of some length, serious in subject and dignified in style

ode

words whose sounds express or reinforce their meanings

onomatopoeia

eight lines, iambic pentameter (abababcc)

Ottava rima

two apparently contradictory terms (cold fires; conspicuous by his absence)

oxymoron

human characteristics given to inanimate objects

Pathetic fallacy

quality which evokes feelings of pity, sympathy, tenderness, etc

pathos

a “mask” which the author assumes to speak to the audience

persona

inanimate objects endowed with human qualities

personification

14 lines divided into two parts, an octave (abbaabba) and sestet (cdecde)

Petrarchan sonnet

stanza of four lines

quatrain

duplication of an element of language, such as a word, phrase, clause, etc

repetition

7-line stanza in iambic pentameter (ababbcc)

Rhyme royal

14 lines, iambic pentameter (abab cdcd efef gg or abba cddc effe gg)

Shakespearean sonnet

comparison using “like” or “as.”

simile

same with rhyme of abab bcbc cdcd ee

Spenserian sonnet

group of lines that form division of a poem

stanza

the qualities that make up a literary personality or way of writing

style

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.)

syllogism

something that stands for something else, but also exists as an entity itself (a hammer and sickle for the USSR)

symbol

part represents the whole (all hands on deck)

synecdoche

the choice of words and their placement in sentences

syntax

a group of three lines rhyming together or connected by rhyme with the adjacent group or groups of three lines

tercet

aba bcb cdc etc

Terza rima

author’s attitude toward (can also be towards audience or both)

tone

a French fixed form (5 tercets and a quatrain, all with two rhymes)

villanelle

Those are your terms, learn them and use them when

appropriate. As we continue to read we will

use these terms on a daily basis…know them!