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AP Literature > Poetic Terms > Flashcards

Poetic Terms Flashcards

(60 cards)

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1
Q

Apostrophe

A

A poem addressed to an absent or dead person/thing

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2
Q

Ekphrasis

A

A vivid description of a scene or, more commonly, a work of art. Through the imaginative act of narrating and reflecting on the “action” of a painting or sculpture, the poet may amplify and expand its meaning

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3
Q

Synecdoche

A

A figure of speech in which a part of something stands for the whole

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4
Q

Metonymy

A

Figure of speech in which a related term is substituted for the word itself. Often the substitution is based on a material, casual, or conceptual relationship between things

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5
Q

Allegory

A

An extended metaphor in which the characters, places, and objects in a narrative carry figurative meaning. Often religious, moral, or historical in nature

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6
Q

Paradox

A

Related to oxymoron, creates a new phrase or concept out of a contradiction

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7
Q

Hyperbole

A

A figure of speech composed of a striking exaggeration

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8
Q

Litote

A

A deliberate understatement for effect; the opposite of hyperbole

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9
Q

Conceit

A

An often unconventional, logically complex, or surprising metaphor whose delights are more intellectual than sensual

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10
Q

Irony

A

Implies a distance between what is said and what is meant

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11
Q

Verbal Irony

A

A comment differs from what is meant to be said; sarcasm

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12
Q

Dramatic Irony

A

When the audience knows a key piece of information that a character in a play, movie or novel does not; scary movies

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13
Q

Situational Irony

A

When the actual result of a situation is contradicts what you’d expect the result to be

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14
Q

Satire

A

Use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues

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15
Q

Parody

A

Comic imitation of another author’s work or characteristic style

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16
Q

Pun

A

Wordplay that uses homonyms (different words that are spelled identically) to deliver two or more meanings at the same time

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17
Q

Meter

A

Rhythmical pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in verse

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18
Q

Foot

A

Basic unit of measurement of accentual-syllabic meter; stressed and unstressed syllables

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19
Q

Iamb

A

Unstressed / Stressed

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20
Q

Trochee

A

Stressed / Unstressed

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21
Q

Anapest

A

Unstressed / Unstressed / Stressed

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22
Q

Dactyl

A

Stressed / Unstressed / Unstressed

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23
Q

Spondee

A

Stressed / Stressed

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24
Q

Onomatopoeia

A

A figure of speech in which the sound of a word imitates its sense

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25
Cacophony
Harsh or discordant word sounds; the opposite of Euphony
26
Euphony
Use of phrases and words that are noted for possessing an extensive degree of notable loveliness or melody in the sound they create
27
Syncope
Shortening of a word by omitting sounds, syllables or letters from the middle of the word
28
Synesthesia
Blending or intermingling of different senses in description
29
English/Shakespearean Sonnet
Composed of three quatrains and a terminal couplet in iambic pentameter with the rhyme pattern abab cdcd efef gg
30
Italian/Petrarchan Sonnet
Consisting of an octave rhyming abba abba and a sestet rhyming in any of various patterns (as cde cde or cdc dcd)
31
Couplet
A pair of successive rhyming lines, usually of the same length
32
Heroic Couplet
Written in a sequence of rhyming pairs and iambic pentameter and features prominently used in epic and narrative poetry
33
Octave
An eight-line stanza or poem
34
Quatrain
A four-line stanza
35
Sestet
A six-line stanza
36
Tercet
A three-line poetic unit
37
Sestina
Usually unrhymed, consisting of six stanzas of six lines each and three-line envoy
38
Villanelle
Five three-line stanzas and a final quatrain; first and third lines of stanza repeat
39
Elegy
A melancholy poem that laments its subject's death but ends in consolation
40
Epic
Long narrative poem in which a heroic protagonist engages in an action of great mythic or historical significance
41
Lyric
Originally a composition meant for musical accompaniment
42
Ode
A formal, often ceremonious lyric poem that addresses and often celebrates a person, place, thing, or idea
43
Aubade
A love poem or song welcoming or lamenting the arrival of the dawn
44
Ballad
A popular narrative song passed down orally
45
Pastoral Imagery and Poetry
Description of the countryside
46
Consonance
Repetition of consonants
47
Assonance
Repetition of vowels
48
Personification
A figure of speech in which the poet describes an abstraction , a thing, or a nonhuman form as if it were a person
49
Blank Verse
Unrhyming iambic pentameter, also called heroic verse; 10-syllable line is the predominant rhythm
50
Free Verse (Open Form)
Non-metrical, non-rhyming lines that closely follow the natural rhythms of speech
51
Masculine Rhyme
Rhymes that are a single stressed syllable at the very END of a line in poetry
52
Feminine Rhyme
Rhymes matching two or more syllables in which the final syllables are unstressed
53
Enjambment
The running-over of a sentence or phrase from one poetic line to the next, without terminal punctuation; the opposite of end-stopped
54
Internal Rhyme
Rhyme involving a word in the middle of a line and another at the end of the line or in the middle of the next
55
Slant Rhyme
Words sound similar, but they aren't close enough to make a full rhyme
56
End-Stopped Line
Metrical line ending at a grammatical boundary or break such as a dash or closing parenthesis; punctuation such as a colon, semicolon, or a period
57
Anaphora
Repetition of a word or words at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or lines
58
Anastrophe
A form of literary device wherein the order of the noun and the adjective in the sentence is exchanged
59
Chiasmus
Repetition of any group of verse elements in reverse order; rhyme scheme ABBA
60
Caesura
Stop or pause in metrical line, often marked by punctuation or by a grammatical boundary such as a phrase or clause

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