AP Poetic Devices and Conventions Guide Flashcards
Allusion
A reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work, or work of art
Anaphora
repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or lines
Alliteration
Repetition of initial consonant sounds
Parallelism
Phrases or sentences of a similar construction/meaning placed side by side, balancing each other
Anastrophe
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.
Oxymoron
conjoining contradictory terms (as in ‘deafening silence’)
Paradox
A statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth.
Personification
the giving of human qualities to an animal, object, or idea
Antithesis
the direct opposite, a sharp contrast
Petrarchan sonnet
poem that has one rhyming octave (8 lines) and one rhyming sestet (6 lines)
Allegory
a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.
Quatrain
A four line stanza
Apostrophe
address to an absent or imaginary person
Refrain
A line or set of lines repeated several times over the course of a poem.
Ballad Meter
four-line stanzas usually rhyming abcb with the first and third lines carrying four accented syllables and the second and fourth carrying three
Satire
A literary work that criticizes human misconduct and ridicules vices, stupidities, and follies.
Blank Verse
verse without rhyme, especially that which uses iambic pentameter.
Caesura
a strong pause within a line of verse
Shift/Volta
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.
Consonance
agreement or compatibility between opinions or actions.
Shakespearean sonnet
a sonnet consisting three quatrains and a concluding couplet in iambic pentameter with the rhyme pattern abab cdcd efef gg
Couplets
two lines of verse, usually in the same meter and joined by rhyme, that form a unit.
Simile
A comparison of two things using “like” or “as”
Elegy
a poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead.
Slant Rhyme
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
Enjambment
the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza.
Sonnet
a verse form consisting of 14 lines with a fixed rhyme scheme
Euphemism
An indirect, less offensive way of saying something that is considered unpleasant
Stanza
a group of lines forming the basic recurring metrical unit in a poem; a verse.
Free Verse
poetry that does not rhyme or have a regular meter
Symbol
A thing that represents or stands for something else, especially a material object representing something abstract.
Heroic Couplet
a pair of rhyming iambic pentameters
Hyperbole
exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.
Structural Division of a poem
How a poem is divided in a structure so the reader knows how to read the poem
Synedoche
using one part of an object to represent the entire object (for example, referring to a car simply as “wheels”)
Iambic Pentameter
a line of verse with five metrical feet, each consisting of one short (or unstressed) syllable followed by one long (or stressed) syllable
Imagery
visually descriptive or figurative language, especially in a literary work.
Irony
the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning
Tone
A writer’s attitude toward his or her subject matter revealed through diction, figurative language, and organization on the sentence and global levels.
Metaphor
A comparison without using like or as
Understatement
the opposite of exaggeration. It is a technique for developing irony and/or humor where one writes or says less than intended.
Meter
A regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry
Metonymy
substituting the name of one object for another object closely associated with it
Octave
an eight-line stanza
Tercet Stanza
A stanza that consists of three lines rhyming together or connected by rhyme with the adjacent group or groups of three lines.
Terza Rima
A three-line stanza rhymed aba, bcb, cdc.
