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AP English Literature > Literary and Poetic Devices > Flashcards

Literary and Poetic Devices Flashcards

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Proverbs and Idioms flashcards
1
Q

Allegory

A

story or poem in which characters, settings, and events stand for other people or events or for abstract ideas or qualities

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2
Q

Alliteration

A

repetition of the same or similar consonant sounds in words that are close together

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3
Q

Allusion

A

reference to someone or something that is known from history, literature, religion, politics, sports, science, or another branch of culture; an indirect reference to something (usually from literature, etc.)

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4
Q

Ambiguity

A

deliberately suggestion two or more different, and sometimes conflicting, meanings in a work; an event or situation that may be interpreted in more than one way - this is done on purpose by the author, when it is not done on purpose, it is vagueness, and detracts from the work

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5
Q

Analogy

A

comparison made between two things to show how they are alike

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6
Q

Anaphora

A

repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of two or more sentences in a row; this is a deliberate form of repetition and helps make the writer’s point more coherent

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7
Q

Anastrophe

A

inversion of the usual, normal, or logical order of the parts of a sentence; purpose is rhythm of emphasis or euphonium; it is a fact word for inversion

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8
Q

Anecdote

A

brief story , told to illustrate a point or serve as an example of something

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9
Q

Antimetabole (also Chiasmus)

A

repetition of words in successive clauses in reverse grammatical order; “one should eat to live, not live to eat”

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10
Q

Antithesis

A

balancing words, phrases, or ideas that are strongly contrasted; “that’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”

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11
Q

Anthropomorphism

A

attributing human characteristics to an animal or inanimate object (personification)

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12
Q

Aphorism (Maxim, Epigram)

A

brief, cleverly worded statement that makes a wise observation about life, or of a principle or accepted general truth

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13
Q

Apostrophe

A

calling out to the imaginary, dead, or absent person, or to a place or thing, or a personified abstract idea; if the character is asking a god or goddess for inspiration it is called an invocation

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14
Q

Assonance

A

the repetition of similar vowel sounds

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15
Q

Asyndeton

A

commas used without conjunction to separate a series of words, thus emphasizing the parts equally: instead of X, Y, and Z… the writer uses X,Y,Z…

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16
Q

Bathos

A

an abrupt transition in style from the exalted to the commonplace, producing a ludicrous effect; “the ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant”

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17
Q

Chiasmus (also Antimetabole)

A

a type of rhetorical balance in which the second part is syntactically balanced against the first, but with he parts reversed: “flowers are lovely, love is flowerlike”

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18
Q

Cliche

A

a word or phrase, often a figure of speech, that has become lifeless because of overuse

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19
Q

Colloquialism

A

a word or phrase in everyday use in conversation and informal writing but is inappropriate for formal situations

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20
Q

Conceit

A

an elaborate/extended metaphor that compares two thing that are startlingly different

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21
Q

Connotation

A

the associations and emotional overtones that have become attached to a word or phrase, in addition to its strict dictionary definition

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22
Q

Couplet

A

two consecutive rhyming lines of poetry

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23
Q

Dialect

A

a way of speaking that is characteristic of a certain social group or of the inhabitants of a certain geographical area

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24
Q

Diction

A

a speaker or writer’s choice of words

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25
Q

Didactic

A

form of fiction or nonfiction that teaches a specific lesson or moral or provides a model of correct behavior or thinking

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26
Q

Elegy

A

a poem of mourning, usually about someone who has died

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27
Q

Eulogy

A

great praise or commendation, a laudatory speech, often about someone who has died

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28
Q

Epigraph

A

a quotation or aphorism at the beginning of a literary work suggestive of the theme

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29
Q

Epistrophe

A

device of repetition in which the same expression (single word or phrase) is repeated at the end of two or more lines/clauses/sentences (opposite of anaphora)

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30
Q

Epithet

A

an adjective or adjective phrase applied to a person or thing that is frequently used to emphasize a characteristic quality; “father of our country” “the great emancipator”

31
Q

Fable

A

a very short story told in prose or poetry that teaches a practical lesson about how to succeed in life…usually involves animals

32
Q

Farce

A

a type of comedy in which ridiculous/stereotyped characters are involved in silly, far-fetched situations

33
Q

Flashback

A

a scene that interrupts the normal chronological sequence of events in a story to depict something that happened at an earlier time

34
Q

Foil

A

a character who acts in contrast to another character; often a funny side kick to the dashing hero or a villain contrasting the hero

35
Q

Foreshadowing

A

the use of hints and clues to suggest what will happen later in a plot

36
Q

Free Verse

A

poetry that does not conform to a regular meter or rhyme scheme

37
Q

Hyperbole

A

a figure of speech that uses an incredible exaggeration or overstatement, for effect

38
Q

Imagery

A

the use of language to evoke a picture or a concrete sensation of a person/thing/place/experience

39
Q

Irony

A

a curious discrepancy between appearances and reality; expectation and outcome

40
Q

Juxtaposition

A

poetic and rhetorical device in which normally unassociated ideas, words, or phrases are placed next to one another, creating an effect of surprise and wit

41
Q

Litotes

A

a form of understatement in which the positive form is emphasized through the negation of a negative; “she is not bad looking”

42
Q

Lyric Poem

A

a poem that does not tell a story but expresses the personal feelings or thoughts of the speaker; a ballad tells a story

43
Q

Metaphor

A

a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things without the use of such specific words of comparisons as like, as, than, or resembles

44
Q

Metonymy

A

a figure of speech in which a person, place, or thing, is referred to by something closely associated with it; “we requested from the crown support for our petition”

45
Q

Mood

A

an atmosphere created by a writer’s diction and the details selected

46
Q

Motif

A

a recurring image, word, phrase, action, idea, object, or situation unifying the work by tying the current situation to previous ones, or new ideas to the theme

47
Q

Onomatopoeia

A

the use of words whose sounds echo their sense; “pop” “zap”

48
Q

Oxymoron

A

a figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase; “jumbo shrimp, pretty ugly, bitter-sweet, false truth”

49
Q

Parable

A

a relatively short story that teaches a moral, or lesson about how to lead a good life…without animals

50
Q

Paradox

A

a statement that appears self-contradictory, but that reveals a kind of truth

51
Q

Parallel Structure (parallelism)

A

the repetition of words or phrases that have similar grammatical structures

52
Q

Parody

A

a work that makes fun of another work by imitating some aspect of the writer’s style

53
Q

Personification

A

an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, or attitudes

54
Q

Polysyndeton

A

sentence which uses a conjunction with NO commas to separate the items in a series; instead of X, Y, and Z…polysyndeton results in X and Y and Z

55
Q

Pun

A

a “play on words” based on the multiple meanings of a single word or on words that sound alike but mean different things

56
Q

Refrain

A

a word, phrase, line, or group of lines that is repeated, for effect, several times in a poem

57
Q

Rhythm

A

a rise and fall of the voice produced by the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables in language

58
Q

Rhetoric

A

art of effective communication, especially persuasive discourse

59
Q

Rhetorical Question

A

a question asked for an effect, and not usually requiring an answer

60
Q

Satire

A

writing that ridicules the shortcomings of people or institutions in an attempt to bring about a change

61
Q

Simile

A

a figure of speech that makes an explicitly comparison between two unlike things, using words such as like, as, than, or resembles

62
Q

Soliloquy

A

a long speech made by a character in a play while no other characters are on stage

63
Q

Stream of Consciousness

A

writing that portrays the inner (often chaotic) workings of a character’s mind

64
Q

Style

A

the distinctive way in which a write uses language: a writer’s distinctive use of diction, tone, and syntax

65
Q

Symbol

A

a person, place, thing, or even that has meaning in itself and that also stands for something more

66
Q

Synecdoche

A

a figure of speech in which a part represents the whole; “if you don’t drive properly, you will lose your wheels,”the wheels” represent the entire car

67
Q

Synesthesia

A

presenting or expressing one sensory experience in terms of another sensory experience; “all colors immediately fell an octave lower”

68
Q

Telegraphic Sentence

A

a sentence shorter than five words in length

69
Q

Theme

A

the insight about human life that is revealed in a literary work

70
Q

Tone

A

the attitude a write takes toward the subject of a work, the characters in it, or the audience, revealed through diction, figurative language, and organization

71
Q

Tragedy

A

in general, a story in which a heroic character either dies or comes to some other unhappy end

72
Q

Understatement

A

a statement that says less than what is meant as a form of emphasis

73
Q

Vernacular

A

the language spoken by the people who live in a particular locality

74
Q

Zeugma

A

the use of a word to modify or govern two or more words although its use may be grammatically or logically correct with only one; “he carried a strobe light and the responsibility for the lives of his men”

AP English Literature (2 decks)

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