AP Literature Poetry Terms

giving human traits to non-living things

• personification
• metaphor
• simile
• anaphora

substituting a whole for a whole

• synechdoche
• metonymy
• personification
• alliteration

extreme exaggeration

• litotes
• metonymy
• hyperbole
• understatement

Harsh, discordant sounds (k, t, g, b, d, p, ch, sh, s) in words

• contraphony
• cacophony
• disphony
• euphony

a direct address to something that can't respond

• apostrophe
• litotes
• euphony
• euphemism

the attitude of the speaker toward the subjects of the poem

• symbol
• tone
• anachronism
• euphony

ironic understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its contrary

• litotes
• hyperbole
• sarcasm
• synechdoche

neat, close not exact rhyme

• perfect rhyme
• internal rhyme
• eye rhyme
• slant rhyme

repetition of vowel sounds in non rhyming words

• alliteration
• assonance
• euphony
• euphemism

compare 2 unlike objects using "like" or "as"

• metaphor
• simile
• hyperbole
• contrast