Litetary Terms For Ap Exam

Aphorism

· Original thought , spoken, or written in a laconic and memorable form

· Sutra Literature of India

Bombast

· Pretentious inflated speech or writing

· Victorian writers where masters of the bombastic (ex. Democracy in America written by Alexix de Tocqueville)

Cadence

· A beat or rhythm of poetry in a general sense

· Iambic pentameter

Dirge

· Song expressing mourning or grief, appropriate for a funeral

· Bye and Bye by Bob Dylan

Elegy

· Mournful melancholic poem, usually a funeral song that shows lament for the dead.

· Catullus Carmen 101- poem written by Catullus to his dead brother. It speaks of “mute ashes” which were the only remaining evidence of his brother’s body.

Doggerel

· Derogatory term for verse considered of little literary value

· Dr. Seuss

In medias res

· Narrative technique where a story begins either at midpoint or at the conclusion rather than at the beginning.

· The Odyssey, the war had been going on for seven years.

Plaint

· A poem or speech expressing sorrow

· A piteous plaint by Eugene Field

Subjunctive mood

· Verb mood typically used in a subordinate clause to express a wish, emotion, possibility, judgment, opinion, necessity, or action that has not yet occurred.

· Truth be told, Come what may, suffice to say, God save the Queen, I wish it were summer.