AP Poetic Devices and Conventions Guide

Question 1

Allusion

Answer 1

A reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work, or work of art

Question 2

Anaphora

Answer 2

repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or lines

Question 3

Alliteration

Answer 3

Repetition of initial consonant sounds

Question 4

Parallelism

Answer 4

Phrases or sentences of a similar construction/meaning placed side by side, balancing each other

Question 5

Anastrophe

Answer 5

Inversion of the usual, normal, or logical order of the parts of a sentence. Purpose is rhythm or emphasis or euphony. It is a fancy word for inversion.

Question 6

Oxymoron

Answer 6

conjoining contradictory terms (as in ‘deafening silence’)

Question 7

Paradox

Answer 7

A statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth.

Question 8

Personification

Answer 8

the giving of human qualities to an animal, object, or idea

Question 9

Antithesis

Answer 9

the direct opposite, a sharp contrast

Question 10

Petrarchan sonnet

Answer 10

poem that has one rhyming octave (8 lines) and one rhyming sestet (6 lines)

Question 11

Allegory

Answer 11

a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.

Question 12

Quatrain

Answer 12

A four line stanza

Question 13

Apostrophe

Answer 13

address to an absent or imaginary person

Question 14

Refrain

Answer 14

A line or set of lines repeated several times over the course of a poem.

Question 15

Ballad Meter

Answer 15

four-line stanzas usually rhyming abcb with the first and third lines carrying four accented syllables and the second and fourth carrying three

Question 16

Satire

Answer 16

A literary work that criticizes human misconduct and ridicules vices, stupidities, and follies.

Question 17

Blank Verse

Answer 17

verse without rhyme, especially that which uses iambic pentameter.

Question 18

Caesura

Answer 18

a strong pause within a line of verse

Question 19

Shift/Volta

Answer 19

Refers to a change or movement in a piece resulting from an epiphany, realization, or insight gained by the speaker, a character, or the reader.

Question 20

Consonance

Answer 20

agreement or compatibility between opinions or actions.

Question 21

Shakespearean sonnet

Answer 21

a sonnet consisting three quatrains and a concluding couplet in iambic pentameter with the rhyme pattern abab cdcd efef gg

Question 22

Couplets

Answer 22

two lines of verse, usually in the same meter and joined by rhyme, that form a unit.

Question 23

Simile

Answer 23

A comparison of two things using “like” or “as”

Question 24

Elegy

Answer 24

a poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead.

Question 25

Slant Rhyme

Answer 25

rhyme in which the vowel sounds are nearly, but not exactly the same (i.e. the words “stress” and “kiss”); sometimes called half-rhyme, near rhyme, or partial rhyme

Question 26

Enjambment

Answer 26

the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza.

Question 27

Sonnet

Answer 27

a verse form consisting of 14 lines with a fixed rhyme scheme

Question 28

Euphemism

Answer 28

An indirect, less offensive way of saying something that is considered unpleasant

Question 29

Stanza

Answer 29

a group of lines forming the basic recurring metrical unit in a poem; a verse.

Question 30

Free Verse

Answer 30

poetry that does not rhyme or have a regular meter

Question 31

Symbol

Answer 31

A thing that represents or stands for something else, especially a material object representing something abstract.

Question 32

Heroic Couplet

Answer 32

a pair of rhyming iambic pentameters

Question 33

Hyperbole

Answer 33

exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.

Question 34

Structural Division of a poem

Answer 34

How a poem is divided in a structure so the reader knows how to read the poem

Question 35

Synedoche

Answer 35

using one part of an object to represent the entire object (for example, referring to a car simply as “wheels”)

Question 36

Iambic Pentameter

Answer 36

a line of verse with five metrical feet, each consisting of one short (or unstressed) syllable followed by one long (or stressed) syllable

Question 37

Imagery

Answer 37

visually descriptive or figurative language, especially in a literary work.

Question 38

Irony

Answer 38

the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning

Question 39

Tone

Answer 39

A writer’s attitude toward his or her subject matter revealed through diction, figurative language, and organization on the sentence and global levels.

Question 40

Metaphor

Answer 40

A comparison without using like or as

Question 41

Understatement

Answer 41

the opposite of exaggeration. It is a technique for developing irony and/or humor where one writes or says less than intended.

Question 42

Meter

Answer 42

A regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry

Question 43

Metonymy

Answer 43

substituting the name of one object for another object closely associated with it

Question 44

Octave

Answer 44

an eight-line stanza

Question 45

Tercet Stanza

Answer 45

A stanza that consists of three lines rhyming together or connected by rhyme with the adjacent group or groups of three lines.

Question 46

Terza Rima

Answer 46

A three-line stanza rhymed aba, bcb, cdc.