Literary Terms for English IV AP

The following are terms that are either new or will continue to be taught and developed throughout the year. An assessment over these terms will be given on August 26.

ad hominem – an argument made that a. appeals to a person’s feelings or prejudices rather than intellect or b. is marked by an attack on an opponent’s character rather than his contentions/arguments

anachronism – something out of its normal time ex. In Troilus and Cressida, Shakespeare is guilty of anachronism when he allows Hector learned reference to Aristotle.

anaphora – repetition when it is specifically used at the beginning of two or more lines, clauses, or sentences ex. “I felt shame . . .” Dick Gregory’s “Shame”

antithesis – involves a direct contrast of structurally parallel word groupings, generally for the purpose of contrast ex. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness . . .” –Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

aphorism – a concise statement of a principle or precept given in pointed words ex. “Life is short, art is long, opportunity fleeting, experimenting dangerous, reasoning difficult.” –Hippocrates, Aphorisms

asyndeton – a condensed form of expression in which a series is presented without conjunctions ex. Caesar’s “Veni, vidi, vici.”

catharsis – a moral and spiritual cleansing; an emphatic identification with others (ex. Watching a protagonist overcome great odds to survive can create catharsis; confession purges the soul.)

climax – when a writer arranges ideas in order of importance ex. I spent the day cleaning the house, reading poetry, and putting my life in order.

deus ex machina – a person or thing that suddenly appears, providing a solution to a difficult problem. The person or thing is lowered to the stage by means of a crane in classic drama.

ellipsis – the omission of one or more words that is/are understood ex. The land’s sharp features seemed to be / The century’s corpse outleant, / His crypt the cloudy canopy, / The wind his death-lament. – Thomas Hardy, “The Darkling Thrush”

epitaph - an inscription used to mark burial places ex. One of the most famous inscriptions is that marking Shakespeare’s burial place:

Good friend, for Jesus sake forbeare

To digg the dust encloased here;

Bleste be ye man y spares thes stones,

And curst be he y moves my bones, -

epithet – a word or phrase used in place of a person’s name; it is characteristic of that person: Alexander the Great, Material Girl, Ms. Know-It-All

homily – a form of oral religious instruction given by a minister to a church congregation (It usually gives practical moral counsel rather than discussion of doctrine.)

hubris – derived from the Greek word hybris, means “excessive pride.” In Greek tragedy, hubris is often viewed as the flaw that leads to the downfall of the tragic hero.

imperative –a command or order

interrogative – a question, query

inversion – a change in the normal word order, often for emphasis or to maintain rhyme scheme or meter. ex. Instead of “I have never seen such a mess,” one might write “Never have I seen such a mess.”

juxtaposition – a poetic and rhetorical device in which normally unassociated ideas, words, or phrases are placed next to one another

litotes – (opposite of hyperbole) a great understatement ex. To say “She was not unmindful” when one means that “She gave careful attention.” In Tennyson’s “Ulysses,” the heroic speaker resorts to litotes several times: “little profits,” for profits not at all,” “not least” for “great,” “not to fail” for “succeed splendidly,” and “not unbecoming” for “thoroughly appropriate.”

loose sentence – follows the basic subject, verb, complement pattern ex. A car hit him, just as he bent over to tie his shoelace.

malapropism – a type of pun that results when two words become jumbled in the speaker’s mind ex. In Sheridan’s comedy, The Rivals, the characters, Mrs. Malaprop, is constantly mixing up her words, as when she says “as headstrong as an allegory [she means alligator] on the banks of the Nile.”

maxim – (similar to an aphorism) an adage, a concise statement, usually drawn from experience, and inculcating some practical advise ex. Hoyle’s “When in doubt, win the trick” is a maxim in bridge.

metonymy – a figure of speech in which the name of one object is substituted for that of another closely associated with it ex. We commonly speak of the monarch as “the crown.” Blood, sweat, and tears” represent “hard work.”

monologue – a speech by a character in a play, story, or poem whose listeners who do not speak

non sequitur – an inference that does not follow from the premise: She is thin; therefore, she is hungry.

paradox – a statement that seems contradictory or absurd but that expresses the truth ex. “For when I am weak, then I am strong.” -2 Corinthians and “The coach considered this a good loss.”

parallelism – the repetition of grammatical structure

ex. The Heavens declare the glory of God; (S V DO)

And the firmament sheweth his handiwork. (S V DO)

parenthesis – the insertion of words, phrases, or a sentence that is not syntactically related to the rest of the sentence (Its is set off by dashes or parentheses.) ex. He said that it was going to rain – I could hardly disagree – before the game was over.
periodic sentence – (opposite of a loose sentence) a sentence withholding its main idea until the end ex. Just as he bent over to tie his shoelace, a car hit him (main idea).

polysyndeton – (opposite of asyndeton) the use of more conjunctions than is normal ex. Milton’s Satan “pursues his way, And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies.”

rhetorical shift – a change from one tone, attitude, etc . . . Look for key words like but, however, even though, although, yet, etc.

sarcasm - A type of verbal irony in which, under the guise of praise, a caustic and bitter expression of strong and personal disapproval is given. Sarcasm is personal, jeering, and intended to hurt

soliloquy – a speech delivered by a character when he or she is alone on stage

syllogism – a formula for presenting an argument logically . . . It affords a method of demonstrating logic through analysis. It consists of 3 divisions: a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion.

Ex. Maj. – All libraries should serve the people.

Min. – This is a public library.

Conc. – Therefore, this library should serve the people.

synecdoche – a form of metaphor in which a part of something is used to stand for the whole thing ex. “threads” for “clothing” and “wheels” for “a car,”

syntax – the physical arrangement of words in a sentence

tone – the writer’s attitude toward his/her audience and subject

understatement – (see litotes) saying less than is actually meant, generally in an ironic way ex. When someone says “pretty fair” but means “splendid”

Poetic Terms Used in English IV AP

Ballad - A narrative poem written in four-line stanzas, characterized by swift action and narrated in a direct style. The Anonymous medieval ballad, "Barbara Allan," exemplifies the genre.

Blank verse - A line of poetry or prose in unrhymed iambic pentameter. Shakespeare's sonnets, Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost, and Robert Frost's meditative poems such as "Birches" include many lines of blank verse. Here are the opening blank verse lines of "Birches": When I see birches bend to left and right / Across the lines of straighter darker trees, / I like to think some boy's been swinging them.

Elegy - A lyric poem that laments the dead. Robert Hayden's "Those Winter Sundays" is elegiac in tone. A more explicitly identified elegy is W.H. Auden's "In Memory of William Butler Yeats."

Epic - A long narrative poem that records the adventures of a hero. Epics typically chronicle the origins of a civilization and embody its central values. Examples from western literature include Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Virgil's Aeneid, and Milton's Paradise Lost.

Free verse - Poetry without a regular pattern of meter or rhyme. The verse is "free" in not being bound by earlier poetic conventions requiring poems to adhere to an explicit and identifiable meter and rhyme scheme in a form such as the sonnet or ballad. Modern and contemporary poets of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries often employ free verse. Williams' "This Is Just to Say" is one of many examples.

Lyric poem - A type of poem characterized by brevity, compression, and the expression of feeling. Most of the poems in this book are lyrics. The anonymous "Western Wind" epitomizes the genre:

Western wind, when will thou blow,
The small rain down can rain?
Christ, if my love were in my arms
And I in my bed again!

Meter - The measured pattern of rhythmic accents in poems

Narrative poem - A poem that tells a story. See Ballad.

Ode - A long, stately poem in stanzas of varied length, meter, and form. Usually a serious poem on an exalted subject, such as Horace's "Eheu fugaces," but sometimes a more lighthearted work, such as Neruda's "Ode to My Socks."

Sonnet - A fourteen-line poem traditionally written in iambic pentameter with variations such as the Shakespearean or English sonnet and the Petrarchan or Italian sonnet.

Stanza - A division or unit of a poem

The following are literary terms presumably known by students entering English IV AP.

They will be used and applied on a regular basis.

Literary Terms for English IV AP

allegory

alliteration

allusion

analogy

apostrophe

archetype

assonance

connotation

consonance

controlling image

denotation

description

details

dialect

dialogue

diction

direct characterization

dramatic irony

epiphany

euphemism

extended metaphor

first-person narrator

figurative language

flashback

foreshadowing

hyperbole

image

imagery

indirect characterization

irony

irony of situation

language

literal language

metaphor

mood

motif

motivation

narrator

omniscient narrator

onomatopoeia

oxymoron

personification

point of view

pun

repetition

sensory language

setting

simile

style

suspense

symbol

theme third person narrator

verbal irony