AP English Midterm Literary Terms/Poetic Devices/Literary Devices
Terms
undefined, object
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- Caesura
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Pause in the middle of line which seperates the two parts of the line.
ex. "Deeds of renown that were done by the heroes"
-Old English - Kenning
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Hyphenated expression that makes metaphors
"swan-road" for the sea
Old English
Exhibit A-Saxon's qualities of somber imagery, love of glory, enthusiam for battle and sea. - Iambic Pentameter
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Metric Foot:Unstressed-Stressed
Number of Metric Feet: 5
Shakespeare wrote a lot in I.P.
Middle English (replaced alliteration and caesura) - Fabliau
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Crude story whose plot involves one or more attemps to cheat another
The Miller's Tale
Reeve's
Shipman's - The Legend
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Although heroines are not strictly saits, their behavior is incredibly and consistently saintly.
The Physician's Tale - The Exemplum
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Story with intention of teaching 'by example' a truth or moral lesson.
Canterbury Tales...? - Mock Epic
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Devices used in the tale of serious 'epic proportion', yet deals with trivial subjects.
The Nun's Priest Tale" - The Fable
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Type of exemplum that uses animals to stereotype humans.
"The Nun's Priest Tale" - Hegelian Dialect
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the principle established by the idealist German philosopher Georg Hegel stating that one concept (thesis) inevitably generates its opposite (antithesis); their interaction leads to a new concept (synthesis). Truth is reached by a continuing dialectic.
Thesis ->The Knights Tale
Synthesis ->The Miller's Tale
Antithesis ->? - Chivalric Romance
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Adventures or tests through which a knight seeks to win the love of his lady.
The Knight's Tale - Lyric
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subjective, reflective poetry with regular rhyme scheme and meter which reveals the poet's thoughts and feelings to create a single, unique impression.
Andrew Marvell "To His Coy Mistress" - Epic
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A long narrative poem where the hero is a figure of heroic stature of nation/international importance & legendary impaortance. Has deeds of great valor and supernatural forces.
Beowulf. - Dramatic Monologue
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A lyric poem in which the speaker tells an audience about a dramatic moment of his/her life, and by doing so reveals his/her character
ex) Prufrock - Elegy
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A poem of lament, meditating on the death of an individual.
The Wanderer/The Seafarer - Conceit
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Poetic Device where an extended metaphor comparing two unlike objects with powerful effect.
Donne's A Valediction Forbidding Mourning. - Personification
- Figure of Speech where objects & animals have human qualities.
- Apostrophe
- An address to a person or personified object not present.
- Metonymy
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The substitiution of a word which relates to the object or person to be named, in place of the name itself.
"The serpent that did sting thy father's life Now wears his crown"
-Hamlet - Synechdoche
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A figure of speech in which a part represents the whole object or idea.
"Not a hair perished [person]"
The Tempest - Hyperbole
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gross exaggeration for effect; overstatement.
"Love you ten years before the Flood, And you should, if you please, refuse Till the conversion of the Jews."
Andrew Marvell, To His Coy Mistress - Verbal Irony
- meaning one thing and saying another
- Dramatic Irony
- Two levels of mening, what the speaker says and what he/she means AND what speaker says and what author means.
- Imagery
- the use of words to represent things, actions, or ideas by sensory description.
- Paradox
- a statement which appears self-contradictory, but underlines a basis of truth.
- Allusion
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a reference to an outside fact, event, or other source.
Prufrock-> Hamlet - The Great Chain of Being
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The Universe (the macrocosm) and the individual (microcosm) is a series of inter-relationships.
Ripple Effect from the macrocosm to the microcosm
Hamlet - "The Green World"
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A place where the characters of the story go to solve problems
Forest in AYLI
Island in Tempest - Epic Hero (5 traits)
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1)Descendent of nobility
2)almost superhuman strength
3)successful as a warrior
4)fearless of death
5)establishes order out of chaos - Masque
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A form of dramatic entertainment in 16th and 17th centuries; consisting of dancing and acting performed by masked players.
The Tempest - Aside
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An actor's remark addressed to the audience rather than the other characters.
Hamlet
Claudius aside "it is the poisoned cup, it is too late" - Bildungsroman
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The moral, psychological and intellectual development of a character.
The Tempest - Horatian Satire
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Aims to correct by gentle and broadly sympathetic laughter.
Canterbury Tales - Juvenalian Satire
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Bitter; points to corruption/evil of men
Canterbury Tales - Situational Irony
- When the reality of a situation differs from the anticipated. When something unexpected happens.
- Existentialism
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A philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness and isolation of the individual experience in a hostile or indifferent universe, regards human existence as unexplainable, and stresses freedom of choice and responsibility for the consequences of one's acts.
Ros and Guil - Noble Savage
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A significant role in the story who presents important ideas and conflicts but is presented as a savage.
Caliban- The Tempest - Understatement
- Figure of speech that consists of saying less than one means.
- Tragic Hero
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-Highly respected public position
-Grand, Noble Characters
-Their psych, intel., emot. health reflects health of society
-Tragedy results from a fall from glory
Hamlet - Epigraph
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A short quote or saying introducing a book or chapter
Prufrock - Deus ex Machina
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Out of the Machine
An unexpected event saving a seemingly hopeless situation. - Stream of Consciousness
- Reveals the characters feelings, thoughts, and actions, often following an associative rather than logical sequence
- Soliloquy
- An acto of speaking one's thoughts aloud when alone
- Pun
- play on words based on the similarity of sound b/w 2 words w/ different meanings
- Comedy (Shakesperean)
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-victory of young lovers over opposition of parents and rivals
-young hero's opponents are slaves to some form of mental bondage
-new society formed around the hero and bride
-movement from bondage to liberty
As You Like It - Theater of the Absurd
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-emphasis on situation instead of event
-doesn't pretend to give moral
-lacks plot
-reality merges into fantasy
-no logic
-often humorous - Aristotle's Poetics
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1) Unity of Time-single day, no time lapse
2) Unity of Place-all action occurs in one place
3) Unity of Action-No irrelevancies are permitted
Also, Classical "Three Dramatic Unities"
The Tempest - Blank Verse
- unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter
- Free Verse
- unrhymed lines without regular rhythm
- Motif
- Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.
- Allegory
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the expression through symbolism of truths of generalizations about human experience.
Beowulf - Epilogue
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A short poem or speech spoken directly to the audience following the conclusion of a play.
As You Like It - Foil
- One that by contrast underscores or enhances the distinctive characteristics of another
- Tragicomedy
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play with strong elements of tragedy that become comedy through reconciliation and redemption.
The Tempest - Archetype
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An original model or type after which other similar things are patterned; a prototype
Beowulf - Anti-Hero
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-Want to believe/ nothing to believe in
-movement from blieveing "who'd have thought we were so important" to believing they don't count
-Victims of Great Chain
-To be told so little, to be denied an explanation
-i don't care/i've had enough/i'm relieved
-Cries for answers to questions
Prufrock, Ros and Guil - Verisimilitude
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veritas-latin for truth
seeming truth/ represents true reality
The Tempest - Pastoral Lover
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Everything will be found in nature
Silvius in As You Like It - Confidant
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A character in a drama or fiction, such as a trusted friend or servant, who serves as a device for revealing the inner thoughts or intentions of a main character.
Horatio to Hamlet - Pastoral
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A literary or other artistic work that portrays or evokes rural life, usually in an idealized way.
As You Like It - Petrarchan Sonnet
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aka Italian Sonnet
2 sections:
-Octave: a question, a story, an idea
-and Sestet: an answer, a comment, a proposition
ABBA ABBA (Octave) CDE CDE (Sestet)
ex. Wyatt's Whoso List to Hunt - Shakesperian Sonnet
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aka English Sonnet
ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
quatrain 1, 2, and 3 each ask a question
final couplet is final comment
Shakespeare's My love is as a fever - Symbol
- A figure of speech that combines literal or sensory qualities of something w/ implied meaning.