Question 1

Sonnet

Accepted Answer

A 14 line poem with a certain rhyme scheme and iambic pentameter

Question 2

Simile

Accepted Answer

A figure of speech comparing one thing to another thing of a different kind with the words “like” or “as”

(“...I will protect you like a hunted dove that I have saved from a hawk's claws.”—the use of a simile emphasizes Torvald patronizing of Nora in A Doll’s House)

Question 3

Metaphor

Accepted Answer

A figure of speech that implies similarity between two (unrelated) concepts

(“her voice is full of money” represents Gatsby’s desire to obtain Daisy’s love in The Great Gatsby)

Question 4

Shakespearean/English Sonnet

Accepted Answer

A sonnet with three quatrains and a concluding couplet

Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG

Question 5

Petrarchan/Italian Sonnet

Accepted Answer

A sonnet with

an eight-line stanza (octave), rhyming ABBAABBA

a six-line stanza (sestet), rhyming CDCDCD or CDECDE

Question 6

Personification

Accepted Answer

Assigning human characteristics to something nonhuman

(“[The eyes of TJ Eckleburg] look out of no face, but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a nonexistent nose”—personifies the billboard eyes of TJ Eckleburg in The Great Gatsby)

Question 7

Allusion

Accepted Answer

A reference to something without directly mentioning it

(the “four horsemen” in Beloved allude to the Apocalypse described in the Book of Revelations)

Question 8

Heroic Couplet

Accepted Answer

A pair of rhyming iambic pentameters

(found at the end of a Shakespearean sonnet)

Question 9

Iambic Pentameter

Accepted Answer

A rhythmic structure that combines unstressed and stressed syllables in groups of five

(“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”—Sonnet 18)

Question 10

Irony

Accepted Answer

The use of words to express the opposite of the literal meaning of those words

(types: verbal irony, situational irony, dramatic irony)

Question 11

Free verse

Accepted Answer

Poetry that doesn’t rhyme or have a regular pattern

Question 12

Verbal irony

Accepted Answer

When a speaker says one thing but means another; the intended meaning differing from the literal meaning

(Marc Antony calling Brutus “an honorable man,” just after Brutus helped murder Caesar)

Question 13

Enjambment

Accepted Answer

Continuing a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line/stanza

(“Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer / The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”—Hamlet)

Question 14

Situational irony

Accepted Answer

When some event happens that is very different from what was expected to happen

(Romeo killing himself because he believes Juliet is dead which then causes Juliet to kill herself is the opposite of the expected happily ever after)

Question 15

Elegy

Accepted Answer

A meditative poem lamenting the death of someone important to the writer

Question 16

Dramatic irony

Accepted Answer

When the reader is aware of a truth that the characters are not aware of

(the audience knows that Juliet is asleep, not dead, but Romeo believes her to be dead)

Question 17

Sestina

Accepted Answer

A poem with six stanzas of six lines each, ending with a three-line envoy

Question 18

Imagery

Accepted Answer

Visually descriptive or figurative language

(“Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us”—The Great Gatsby)

Question 19

Haiku

Accepted Answer

A three-line poem with 5, 7, and 5 syllables respectively

Question 20

Symbolism

Accepted Answer

Using symbols to represent ideas

A symbol is a person/place/thing that represents more than itself

(in The Great Gatsby, the green light symbolizes Gatsby’s hopes/dreams for the future and the general quest for the American Dream)

Question 21

Motif

Accepted Answer

A repeating image, object, idea, or symbol

Question 22

Allegory

Accepted Answer

A story/poem that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning

(The Lord of the Flies is an allegory for the human impulse toward both civilization and savagery)

Question 23

Juxtaposition

Accepted Answer

Placing two contrasting elements next to each other

Question 24

Alliteration/Assonance

Accepted Answer

A series of words starting with the same letter

(“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past”—The Great Gatsby)

Question 25

Diction

Accepted Answer

The wording/linguistic choices the writer makes to convey an idea, point of view, or story

(see: colloquial diction, denotation vs. connotation)

Question 26

Colloquial diction

Accepted Answer

The use of informal expressions

(“Damn!” / “y’all”)

Question 27

Denotation vs. connotation (in diction)

Accepted Answer

Denotation: The literal/primary meaning of a word (the color “blue”)

Connotation: The idea/feeling a word suggests (the girl was “blue”)

Question 28

Hyperbole

Accepted Answer

An exaggeration or overstatement

(“Past cure I am, now reason is past care”—Shakespeare uses hyperbole to describe his love and desire in Sonnet 147)

Question 29

In medias res

Accepted Answer

Beginning a narrative in the middle of a crucial situation

Author connects the dots over time

(Oedipus Rex begins in medias res after Oedipus kills his father and marries his mother)

Question 30

Satire

Accepted Answer

A style of writing that uses humor to mock a person or belief

(Animal Farm is a political satire of the Russian Revolution)

Question 31

Archetype

Accepted Answer

A recurring personality, place, or figure that is found across cultures and time periods

(archetype of “star-crossed lovers” in Romeo and Juliet)

Question 32

Oxymoron

Accepted Answer

A figure of speech pairing two opposite or contradictory words

(“seriously funny”, “unbiased opinion”, “sweet sorrow”)

Question 33

Paradox

Accepted Answer

A statement that seems contradictory, but reveals a truth upon closer analysis

(“Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once”—Julius Caesar)

Question 34

Extended Metaphor / Conceit

Accepted Answer

A metaphor that extends over multiple lines, often using “sub-metaphors” to draw multiple parallels

(Shakespeare comparing his subject to a summer day in Sonnet 18)

Literary Devices, AP Literature Flashcards