1. Terms which might be useful for the A.P. Literature Exam From Barbara Swovelin’s list

2. From the Latin meaning “to or against the man,” this is an argument that appeals to emotion rather than reason, to feeling rather than intellect. Ad hominem argument

3. close repetition of consonant sounds at beginning of words alliteration

4. brief reference to familiar person/thing/incident (often Biblical, historical, mythological or literary) allusion

5. directly addressing an absent or imaginary person apostrophe

6. repetition of vowel sounds assonance

7. narrative poem, originally sung (ballade: a French verse form) ballad

8. excessive pathos bathos

9. pause in line, dictated by rhythm (“A little learning…..is a dangerous thing) caesura

10. close repetition of identical consonant sounds around different vowels (flip-flop, or at the ends of words (hid-bed) consonance

11. two lines of verse, usually rhymed and of same meter couplet

12. events following the climax and falling action (resolution) denoument

13. “god from machine” (saves the day) Deus ex machina

14. the choice of words and their placement in sentences diction

15. juxtaposition of jarring sounds dissonance

16. rough, crudely written verse, usually comic doggrel

17. dignified poem mourning death elegy

18. end of phrase or sentence coincides with end of line (poetry) end-stopped line

19. extended narrative poem, exalted in style and heroic in theme epic

20. extended simile Epic (Homeric) simile

21. short, witty statement, graceful and ingenious epigram

22. final section of speech or written work (peroration) epilogue

23. “showing forth” (Greek), an insight epiphany

24. death inscription (“On the whole, I’d rather be in Philadelphia” W.C. Fields) epitaph

25. term used to characterize a person (Jack the Ripper) epithet

26. truth narrative illustrating a moral fable

27. makes use of figures of speech (techniques comparing dissimilar objects); specific figures of speech are listed separately Figurative language

28. group of syllables forming metrical unit: iambtrochee anapestdactyl foot

29. fixed metrical arrangement form

30. lacks regular meter and line length (relies on natural rhythm; most modern poetry) Free verse

31. black humor (like dead baby jokes) gallows humor

32. literary type or class, specific or general (carpe diem poetry, tragedy, novels, etc.) Genre

33. pair of rhymed iambic pentameter lines Heroic couplet

34. deliberate exaggeration hyperbole

35. language which evokes sensory experiences; engaging sight, smell, taste, etc. imagery

36. writer expresses a meaning contradictory to stated or ostensible one:  Verbal irony: attitude opposite to what is literally stated.  Dramatic irony: situation understood in double sense by audience (and not by characters on stage).  Situational irony: circumstances turn out to be reverse of those anticipated irony

37. or meiosis; understatement (in Hamlet, “a play of some interest”) litotes

38. originally (Greek) sung to lyre; lyric poetry expresses feelings of speaker in words which have musical qualities lyric

39. two unlike objects compared (“Life is but a walking shadow”) metaphor

40. figure of speech, name of object substituted for another (“my light [vision] is spent”) metonymy

41. pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables; see foot, a foot being the metrical unit; the following terms refer to number of feet per line: monometer, dimeter, trimeter, tetrameter, pentameter, hexameter, heptameter, octometer. Iambic pentameter refers to a line of five feet of iambs meter

42. recurring image, character, verbal pattern, etc. motif

43. tells a story (as does anything narrative) Narrative verse

44. lyric poem of some length, serious in subject and dignified in style ode

45. words whose sounds express or reinforce their meanings onomatopoeia

46. eight lines, iambic pentameter (abababcc) Ottava rima

47. two apparently contradictory terms (cold fires; conspicuous by his absence) oxymoron

48. human characteristics given to inanimate objects Pathetic fallacy

49. quality which evokes feelings of pity, sympathy, tenderness, etc pathos

50. a “mask” which the author assumes to speak to the audience persona

51. inanimate objects endowed with human qualities personification

52. 14 lines divided into two parts, an octave (abbaabba) and sestet (cdecde) Petrarchan sonnet

53. stanza of four lines quatrain

54. duplication of an element of language, such as a word, phrase, clause, etc repetition

55. 7-line stanza in iambic pentameter (ababbcc) Rhyme royal

56. 14 lines, iambic pentameter (abab cdcd efef gg or abba cddc effe gg) Shakespearean sonnet

57. comparison using “like” or “as.” simile

58. same with rhyme of abab bcbc cdcd ee Spenserian sonnet

59. group of lines that form division of a poem stanza

60. the qualities that make up a literary personality or way of writing style

61. a deductive, logical argument, formulated around one major premise, one minor premise, and a conclusion (e.g. All men are mortal; Socrates is a man; therefore, Socrates is mortal.) syllogism

62. something that stands for something else, but also exists as an entity itself (a hammer and sickle for the USSR) symbol

63. part represents the whole (all hands on deck) synecdoche

64. the choice of words and their placement in sentences syntax

65. a group of three lines rhyming together or connected by rhyme with the adjacent group or groups of three lines tercet

66. aba bcb cdc etc Terza rima

67. author’s attitude toward (can also be towards audience or both) tone

68. a French fixed form (5 tercets and a quatrain, all with two rhymes) villanelle

69. Those are your terms, learn them and use them when appropriate.