AP LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION

Literary Terms

Sentence Structure

ANAPHORA

When a word or phrase is repeated at the beginning of two or more sentences or clauses.

“Every breath you take, every move you make, every bond you break, every step you take, I’ll be watching you.” --The Police, “Every Breath You Take”

EPISTROPHE

When a word or phrase is repeated at the end of two or more sentences or clauses.

I like chocolate, I eat chocolate, and ultimately, I live for chocolate.

ANTITHESIS

Using balanced grammatical structures to contrast ideas

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”—Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

CHIASMUS

In poetry, when two parts of a line or sentence are balanced, but the second part is a reversal of the first.

“Fair is foul, and foul is fair.” –William Shakespeare,

Macbeth

ASYNDETON

Commas without conjunctions separating items in a series

“To die, to sleep, to sleep, perchance to dream”--William Shakespeare,

Hamlet

POLYSYNDETON

Conjunctions without commas separating items in a series

“Neither rain nor snow nor sleet nor hail shall keep the postman from his appointed rounds.”

HYPOTACTIC SENTENCE

Explicitly showing the relationship between ideas in a sentence by using a connecting word or phrase

I am tired because it is hot.

PARATACTIC SENTENCE

Implicitly showing the relationship between ideas by placing them side by side without using connecting words

I am tired; it is hot.

LOOSE SENTENCE

one in which the main clause comes first, followed by further dependent grammatical units

I like living in Lawrenceville because of its fine restaurants, friendly people, and exciting nightlife.

PERIODIC SENTENCE

places the main idea or central complete thought at the end of the sentence, after all introductory elements

Because of its fine restaurants, friendly people, and exciting nightlife, I like living in Lawrenceville.

TELEGRAPHIC SENTENCE

A sentence shorter than five words in length

Lawrenceville is amazing.

Figurative Language

APOSTROPHE

Addressing someone or something who is not there or cannot answer

“Thou still unravish’d bride of quietness, / Thou foster-child of Silence and slow Time”

–John Keats, “Ode on a Grecian Urn”

CONCEIT

A metaphor, often extended, that compares two very different things

In “A Valediction Forbidding Mourning,” John Donne compares love first to hammered gold and then to a drawing compass.

LITOTES

understatement created by negating a negative

“That [sword] was not useless to the warrior now.”

--Beowulf

METONYMY

Referring to something by a related thing

The White House issued a statement.

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SYNECDOCHE

when a part of something represents the whole

The captain ordered all hands on deck.

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SYNESTHESIA

When something is perceived through an unexpected sense

“Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound / that saved a wretch like me”