1. AP Literary Device Alliteration
Repetition of the same consonantal sound, usually at the beginning or within two or more successive words
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck would chuck wood?
Veni, Vidi, Vici
Effect: emhasizes, enlightens

2. AP Literary Device Anaphora
Repetition of a word, usually at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or lines
Blessed are the poor in spirit…/Blessed are the meek…/Blessed are they who mourn…
Tu mihi quodcumque hoc regni, tu sceptra Iovemque/ concilias, tu das epulis accumbere divum
Effect: emphasizes

3. AP Literary Device Anastrophe
The deliberate reversal of natural word order
When he himself might his quietus make.
Karthago, Italiam contra
Errabant acti fatis maria omnia circum
Te propter
Effect: emphasizes word appearing first

4. AP Literary Device Aposiopesis
An abrupt break in the sentence where the speaker is seemingly overwhelmed by some excessive emotion …an unfinished thought
Quos ego ---! sed motos praestat componere fluctus (Neptune, Aen )
Effect: creates dramatic energy

5. AP Literary Device Apostrophe
A “turning away” from one to address another; often used to address an absent personified object or person
Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him. (Shakespeare, Julius Caesar)
O patria, O divum domus Ilium (Aen )
Invide, dicebant, paries, quid amantibus obstas? (Ovid, Met. 4.73)
Effect: expresses pathos, draws reader in

6. AP Literary Device Asyndeton
The omission of connectors (et, vel, nec, etc.) in a closely related series in order to present a rapid statement of ideas
But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. (Abraham Lincoln)
Saevus ubi Aeacidae telo iacet Hector, ubi ingens Sarpedon, ubi tot Simois correpta sub undis scuta virum. (Aen )
Effect: accelerates narrative

7. AP Literary Device Chiasmus
A criss-cross patterning of words, often nouns and adjectives into the arrangement ABBA
Fair is foul, foul is fair (Shakespeare, MacBeth)
Aoniam Marte movente lyram (Ovid, Amores)
Omnia possideat, non possidet aera Minos
Ovid, Met. VIII. 187
Effect: contrast

8. AP Literary Device Ecphrasis
A digression vividly describing a place, object, or event. In epic poetry, this device creates a transition to a new scene
Description of harbor (Aen )
Murals in the temple of Juno (Aen ff.)
The doors of Apollo’s temple (Aen )
Aeneas’ shield (Aen )
Effect: adds vividness, interest

9. AP Literary Device Ellipsis
The omission of an easily understood or assumed word in order to avoid repetition, to accelerate the narrative, or to accommodate the requirements of the meter. The understood word is often a form of esse, but can also be a form of ago, dico, facio, inquit, or loquor.
Ellipsis points are used in questions throughout the AP exam
Effect: accelerates the narrative, adds variety

10. AP Literary Device Epithet
The consistent use of an adjective to characterize some person or thing
“swift-footed” Achilles
“rosy-fingered” dawn
“wine-dark” sea
Sum “pius” Aeneas
Effect: reinforces or emphasizes

11. AP Literary Device Transferred Epithet (enallage)
Application of an adjective to one noun when it is grammatically connected to another
“The ploughman plods home his weary way”
“et de purpureis conlectae vitibus uvae”
(and grapes gathered from purple vines)
Ovid, Met. VIII. 676
Effect: reinforces or emphasizes

12. AP Literary Device Hendiadys
The use of two nouns connected by a conjunction (et, ac, atque, -que) and having the meaning of a modified noun
He arrived despite the rain and weather.
Hoc metuens, molemque et montes insuper altos (a massive mountain) (Aeneid I: 61)
Mollierant animos lectus et umbra meos
(Ovid, Amores I: 9)
Effect: amplifies, adds force

13. AP Literary Device Hyperbaton
A significant distortion of normal word order such as the separation of a noun form the adjective that it belongs with
Size matters not! Judge me by me size, do you? (Yoda)
Tantae animis caelestibus irae? (Aen. 1.11)
Speluncam Dido dux et Troianus eandem
(Aen )
Effect: Emphasizes first of separated words

14. AP Literary Device Hyperbole
Exaggeration for emphasis or rhetorical effect
I must have walked a million miles today.
Fluctus ad sidera tollit (Aen )
Cumulo praeruptus aquae mons (Aen )
Effect: stresses importance of situation

15. AP Literary Device Hysteron Proteron
Reversal of normal or expected sequence of events in order to emphasize the most important idea or thought
Put on your shoes and socks!
Moriamus et in media arma ruamus
(Aen )
Effect: Stresses the end of an action, emphasis

16. AP Literary Device Litotes
An understatement or double-negative. Litotes consists of a negative word (i.e. non, nec[que]), and a following adjective
It is not unusual
Neque enim ignari sumus (Aeneid 1.198)
Nec sumus igrati: tibi nos debere fatemur
Ovid. Met. IV. 76
Effect: emphasizes

17. AP Literary Device Metaphor
An implied comparison, made through the figurative use of words that suggest a likeness between what is actually being described and something else
All the world’s a stage,/and all the men and women merely players,/they have their exits and their entrances (Shakespeare, As You Like It)
Ignes interiorem edunt medullam (Cat. 35)
Effect: provokes thought, evokes feeling

18. AP Literary Device Metonymy
Use of one noun for another
“Jock” for athlete”
“White House” for President
“arma (= bellum) virumque cano”
“implentur veteris Bacchi”
Effect: conveys the abstract in concrete terms, variety of expression

19. AP Literary Device Onomatopoeia
“sound-sense,” the poetic use of a single word whose sound suggests its meaning
Babble, bang, buzz, cuckoo, hum, moo
Magnum cum murmure montis (Aen. 1.55)
Qualis mugitus, fugit cum saucius aram
(Aen )
Effect: illustrates lexical meaning

20. AP Literary Device Personification
The attribution of human qualities to inanimate objects, animals, or concepts
Mother Nature, Blind Justice
Suadentque cadentia sidera somnos (Aen. 2.9)
Luctantem Icariis fluctibus Africum (Horace)
Effect: makes abstract concrete, makes vivid

21. AP Literary Device Pleonasm
The use of redundant, superfluous, or unnecessary words. The opposite of ellipsis
I’ll meet you at 12:00 noon
Sic ore effata, and thus having spoken with her mouth (Aen )
Effect: clarifies, reinforces

22. AP Literary Device Polyptoton
Repetition of a word but in a different form
Winners never quit, quitters never win
Tam te basia multa basiare (Catullus 45)
Ars adeo latet arte sua (Ovid, Met )
Effect: adds interest, clarifies

23. AP Literary Device Polysyndeton
The use of more conjuctions (et, -que, atque, nec) than is needed in series of coordinate words, phrases, or clauses
He ran and laughed and jumped for joy
Eurusque Notusque ruunt creberque … /Africus. (Aen )
Involvens umbra magna terramque polumque. (Aen )
Effect: produces a cumulative effect

24. AP Literary Device Prolepsis
Speaking of something future as already completed or existing; a looking forward
Dead man walking
Precolonial United States
Summersas obrue puppes (Aen. 1.69)
Vixi et quem dederat cursum fortuna peregi
(Aen )
Effect: Flashforward, emphasizes

25. AP Literary Device Synchysis (Interlocked Word Order)
Words are arranged so that one word of a pair is placed between the words of another pair, in an ABAB pattern
Saevae memorem Iunonis ob iram (Aen. 1.4)
Aeternum hoc sanctae foedus amicitiae
(Catullus 109)
Effect: emphasizes close association of word pairs and gives closely knit expression

26. AP Literary Device Synecdoche
The use of the part for the whole (pars pro toto) for variety of expression
All hands on deck
He purchased a new set of wheels
Quoque erat accinctus, demisit in ilia ferrum [iron for sword] (Ovid. Met )
Effect: variety of expression

27. AP Literary Device Tmesis
The separation of parts of a compound word by one or more intervening words
Circum dea fundit => circumfundit (Aen )
Bis collo sqamea circum terga data => circumdati (Aen )
Effect: stresses enclosed words, meter needs

28. AP Literary Device Tricolon Crescens
The use of three closely connected or parallel descriptions, increasing in size or emphasis, to modify a person or thing
A happy life is one spent in learning, earning, and yearning (Lillian Gish)
Veni, Vidi, Vici (Julius Caesar)
Effect: gives the impression of a series

29. AP Literary Device Zeugma
The use of one part of speech (usually a verb, but sometimes a noun) when strictly speaking the word can only be applied to one of them.
The farmers grew corn, beans, and bored.
Aeneas tulit dolorem et patrem Troia
Effect: condenses