AP Literature Terminology

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Villanelle

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A nineteen-line fixed form consisting of five tercets and a concluding quatrain, with the first and third lines of the first stanza repeating alternately in the following stanzas.

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Anapest

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A metrical foot consisting of two unaccented syllables followed by an accented syllable.

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Ballad

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A fairly short narrative poem written in a song-like stanza form.

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Assonance

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The repetition of similar vowel sounds in the stressed syllables of successive words.

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Sestina

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A poem consisting of six stanzas with six lines each and a three-line envoy where the end words of the first stanza are repeated in a different order in each of the subsequent five stanzas.

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Iamb

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A metrical foot consisting of one unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable.

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Trochee

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A metrical foot consisting of one accented syllable followed by one unaccented syllable.

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Tercet

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A stanza consisting of three lines.

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Enjambment

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The continuation of a sentence or clause across a line break without a pause.

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Consonance

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The repetition of consonant sounds in close proximity within a sentence or phrase.