AP English Literature Literary Terms List: 2015 – 16
1. Aesthetic/ Aesthetics – means “appealing to the senses”; a 19th century movement believing the onlyvalue of
literatureis its appeal to the senses, - not teaching, instructing, or supporting moral values
2. Allegory – each aspect of a story has symbolic meaning outside the tale itself, thus text has multiple meanings
3. Antagonist –force or person in conflict with main character
4. Anthropomorphism – when inanimate objects, animals, or natural phenomena are given human characteristics,
behavior, or motivation
5. Bathos, Pathos – writing that evokes feelings of dignified pity & sympathy – it’s PATHOS; when writing strains for
grandeur it can’t support tries to elicit tears from every little hiccup – it’s BATHOS.
6. Black Humor – the use of disturbing themes in comedy
7. Bombast – pretentious, exaggeratedly learned language
8. Burlesque – any imitation of people/literary type that, by distortion of minor vices/faults aims to amuse; (parody –
is a work that makes fun of another work by exaggerating many of its qualities to ridiculousness)
9. Comedy – a humorous play that has a happy ending
10. Chorus – in drama, the group of citizens who stand outside the main action on stage & comment on the action
11. Decorum – to have decorum, a character’s speech must be styled according to her/his social station and in
accordance with the occasion (a prince should speak like a prince, not a beggar)
12. Diction – author’s choice of words, phrases, sentence structures, & figurative language, to help create meaning
(Syntax – refers to the ordering and structuring of the words)
13. Elements – the basic techniques of each genre of literature: (basic list below)
Short Story Poetry Drama
characters figurative language conflicts exposition
irony symbol characters rising action
theme imagery climax falling action
symbol rhythm conclusion sets, props
plot rhyme
14. Essay – a brief prose writing on a particular subject or idea
15. Euphemism- commonly used term to express a certain idea without bluntly declaring that idea; also called
“double speak”; (example: instead of “used car,” it is a “guaranteed previously owned car”)
16. Existentialism – literary movement that stresses the loneliness, insecurity, and irrevocability of human experience,
and focuses on people’s attempts to face these situations and ultimately to escape them.
17. Fable – a short, easy-to-read story that teaches a lesson about people, often includes animals that talk & act like
people
18. Farce – extremely broad humor (in earlier times it was a more neutral term meaning a funny play or comedy; every earlier,
it was generic term for any play – it did not even imply humor….. check date of piece you are discussion)
19. Fiction –writing about made-up events & characters, contain imaginary situations and characters
20. Figurative Language – words & expressions not meant to be taken literally – similes, metaphors, hyperbole,
personifications, puns
21. Foil – a secondary character whose purpose is to highlight the characteristics of a main character, usually by
contrast
22. Genre – a subcategory of literature; science fiction and detective stories are genre of fiction
23. Hubris – excessive pride or ambition that leads to the main character’s downfall
24. Idyll– a short picturesque piece, usually about shepherds; presents an episode from the heroic past but stresses
the pictorial rather than the heroic.
25. Imagists/ Imagism – Poets of 1912 – 14 who sought to use common language, look at the entire world, and present
poetry in vivid and sharp detail with concentrated visual images; used free verse; Ezra Pound was leader
26. Irony - an implied discrepancy between what is said and what is meant.
Three basic kinds of IRONY: (Irony appears often on AP Lit tests!!!!!)
27. Verbal irony - when an author says one thing and means something else
28. Dramatic irony when an audience knows something that a character in the literature does not know.
29. Situational Irony - discrepancy between the expected result and actual results
30. Litote – a special form of understatement; it affirms something by negating its opposite (ex: “He’s no fool”
means that he is very shrewd.)
31. Loose Sentence – a sentence that is complete before its end
32. Memoir – a first-person prose selection about an event
33. Metamorphosis – when a person changes form or shape (ex: ancient myths’characters change into stars, animals, etc.)
34. Mood – strong feeling reader gets from a literary work, created by characterization, description, images, and
dialogue (examples: terror, horror, tension, calmness, suspense); also called atmosphere.
35. Myth – a story from ancient days that explains certain aspects of life and nature
36. Parody – a work that makes fun of another work by exaggerating many of its qualities to ridiculousness
POINTS OF VIEW: (AP likes to ask questions about POV AND you should mention in your essays!!!)
37. First Person - narrator is character in the story who can reveal only personal thoughts/ feelings and what he/she
sees and is told by other characters. He/she can’t tell us thoughts of other characters
38. Third-Person Objective - narrator is an outsider who can report only what he/she sees and hears. This narrator can
tell us what is happening, but he can’t tell us the thoughts of the characters (“camera-eye view)
39. Third-Person Limited - narrator is an outsider who sees into the mind of one of the characters
40. Omniscient - narrator is all-knowing outsider who can enter the minds of more than one character
41. Satire - literary tone used to ridicule or make fun of human vice or weakness, often with the intent of correcting,
or changing, the subject of the attack (AP Exams OFTEN have Satire!!!!!)
42.Soliloquy – a speech one character speaks while alone on the stage, the character often voices his/he deepest
thoughts or concerns.
43. Tall Tale – originally was an oral folk tale, exaggerates the main events or the character’s abilities
44. Villanelle – poetic form that not only rhymes but also repeats lines in a predetermined manner, both as a refrain
and as an important part of poem itself; 5 stanzas of 3 lines each are followed by a quatrain
45. Voice – author’s unique attitude toward the material
AP English Literature POETRY Literary Terms List: 2015 – 16
46. Accent – In poetry, this refers to the stressed (emphasized) portion of a word
47. Ballad-simple narrative poem of folk origin, composed in short stanzas and adapted for singing.
48. Blank Verse - (also called unrhymed iambic pentameter): Unrhymed lines of ten syllables each with the even-
numbered syllables accented; has been called the most "natural" verse form for dramatic works,
since it supposedly is the verse form most close to natural rhythms of English speech
49. Canto – a section division in a long work of poetry, similar to a chapter division in a novel
50. Concrete Poems – poems in which the shape, not the words, is what matters
51. End rhyme - a poem has lines ending with words that sound the same.
52. Epic – very long narrative poem on a serious theme & in a dignified style; usually dealing with glorious or
profound subject matter; “mock-epic” is a parody form that deals with mundane events and ironically
treats them as being worthy of epic poetry.
53. Free Verse – poetry written without a regular rhyme scheme or metrical pattern
54. Foot – a group of stressed and unstressed syllables combining to form a unit of verse. (There are two parts to the
termiambic pentameter. The first part refers to the type of poetic foot being used predominantly in the line. A poetic
foot is a basic repeated sequence of meter composed of two or more accented or unaccented syllables. A foot is
composed of either 2 or 3 syllables, such that the nature of the foot is determined by theplacement of the accent; their
placement determines rhythm of line. Poetic lines are usually NOT composed of only one type of metrical foot.)
Four Common Types of Metrical Feet are:
11. iambic foot - sequence is: unaccented/ accented; example: destroy
12. trochaic foot – sequence is: accented/ unaccented) – example: topsy
13. anapestic foot – sequence is: unaccented/ unaccented/ accented ) – example: intervene
14. dactylic foot – sequence is: accented/ unaccented/ unaccented) – example: merrily
Two More Uncommon Types of Metrical Feet are:
15. spondaic foot –sequence is : accented/accented) – example: hum drum
16.pyrrhic foot – sequence is: sequence is:the/sea/son of/mists (the "son of" in the middle being
unaccented/unaccented)
The second part of defining a FOOT has to do with line length. But the second part of the term, pentameter, shows the number of feet per line. The types of line lengths are as follows:
17. One foot: Monometer
18. Two feet: Dimeter
19. Three feet: Trimeter
20. Four feet: Tetrameter
21. Five feet: Pentameter
22. Six feet: Hexameter
23. Seven feet: Heptameter
24. Eight feet: Octameter Rarely is a line of a poem longer than eight feet seen in English language.
55. Haiku Poetry – Japanese verse form composed of 17 syllables in three lines; the 1st & 3rd lines have 5 syllables each;
the 2nd line has 7 syllables. Most Haiku describe images from nature
56. Internal rhyme - created by two or more words within the sameline , or 2 or more lines of verse, that rhyme- not
focusing on rhyming at the end of lines
57. Limerick – a poem of light verse composed of 3 long and 2 short lines, the long lines (1st, 2nd, and 5th) rhyming with
each other and the short lines (3rd & 4th) rhyming with each other
58. Lyric- a type of emotional songlike poetry, opposite of dramatic and narrative poetry
59. Narrative poem- a poem that tells a story and has a plot
60. Ode- a very long lyric poem characterized by elevated feelings, great passion, may be introspective
61. Refrain – a line or a group of lines that are repeated at the end of a poem or song, used to reinforce the main
point and create musical effects
62. Scan/ Scanning – to figure out a poem’s meter (its pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables)
63. Sonnet –poem expressing a single, complete thought/idea of 14 lines, usually in iambic pentameter; 2 types:
34. Italian Sonnet - 8 lines followed by 6 lines, or
35. ShakespearianSonnet- 3 sets of 4 lines followed by a couplet
64. Slant rhyme –(“half-rhyme”) approximate rhyme, occurring when the rhyming sounds are similar (Emily
Dickinson used) is rarely accidental
65. Stanza – the grouping of lines in a poem with each stanza presenting one idea; Stanzas are classified as follows:
66. Couplets – 2 line stanzas
67. Quatrains – 4 line stanzas
68. Sextets- 6 line stanzas
69. Octets - 8 line stanzas
Remember: The quizzes will only cover 40 of the above terms, but the 40 terms will switch around, so learn ALL terms.
For more help with literary terms:
Also, see class website