AP Literature Vocabulary

the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid using like or as

• metaphor

• simile

• parody

• comparison

extended, emotional piece of literature

• dramatic monologue

• rhapsody

• analogy

• cadence

lines that are repeated throughout poetry

• cacophony

• metonymy

• alliteration

• refrain

giving human qualities to non human things

• personification

• simile

• irony

• alliteration

dealing with shepherds or rural life in a usually artificial manner and typically drawing a contrast between the innocence and serenity of the simple life and the misery and corruption of city and especially court life

• ballad

• oxymoron

• allegory

• pastoral

an imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect.

• parody

• dramatic irony

• anecdote

• parallelism

the use of components in a sentence that are grammatically the same; or similar in their construction, sound, meaning, or meter.

• repetition

• in media res

• parallelism

• assonance

a statement that may seem contradictory but can be true

• dissonance

• paradox

• opposition

• oxymoron

a short fictitious story that is presented to teach a religious principle, simple truth or moral lesson

• analogy

• motif

• pastoral

• parable

a figure of speech that puts together opposite elements

• oxymoron

• paradox

• metonymy

• catharsis