AICE Lit Terms Exam Questions with
Verified Solutions
Alliteration - ANS-The repetition of identical or similar consonant sounds, normally at the
beginnings of words.
Ex: "Gnus never knew pneumonia" is an example of alliteration since, despite the
spellings, all four words begin with the "n" sound.
Allusion - ANS-A reference in a work of literature to something outside the work,
especially to a well-known historical or literary event, person, or work.
Ex: When T.S. Eliot writes, "To have squeezed the universe into a ball" in "The Love
Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," he is alluding to the lines "Let us roll our strength and
all/Our sweetness up into one ball" in Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress."
Antithesis - ANS-A figure of speech characterized by strongly contrasting words,
clauses, sentences, or ideas, as in "Man proposes; God disposes." Antithesis is a
balancing of one term against another for emphasis or stylistic effectiveness.
Ex: The second line of the following couplet by Alexander Pope is an example of
antithesis:
The hungry judges soon the sentence sign,
And wretches hang that jury-men may dine.
Apostrophe - ANS-a figure of speech in which someone (usually, but not always
absent), some abstract quality, or a nonexistent personage is directly addressed as
though present.
Ex: Following are two examples of apostrophe:
Papa Above!
Regard a Mouse.
-Emily Dickinson
Milton! Thou shouldst be living in this hour;
England hath need of thee . . ..
-William Wordsworth
Assonance - ANS-the repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds. "A land laid waste
with all its young men slain" repeats the same "a" sound in "laid," "waste," and "slain."
, ballad meter - ANS-a four-line stanza rhymed abcd with four feet in lines one and three
and three feet in lines two and four.
Ex: O mother, mother make my bed.
O make it soft and narrow.
Since my love died for me today,
I'll die for him tomorrow.
blank verse - ANS-unrhymed iambic pentameter.
Ex: Blank verse is the meter of most of Shakespeare's plays, as well as that of Milton's
Paradise Lost.
cacophony - ANS-a harsh, unpleasant combination of sounds or tones. It may be an
unconscious flaw in the poet's music, resulting in harshness of sound or difficulty of
articulation, or it may be used consciously for effect, as Browning and Eliot often use it.
See, for example, the following line from Browning's "Rabbi Ben Ezra":
Irks care the crop-full bird? Frets doubt the maw-crammed beast?
caesura - ANS-a pause, usually near the middle of a line of verse, usually indicated by
the sense of the line, and often greater than the normal pause.
For example, one would naturally pause after "human' in the following line from
Alexander Pope:
To err is human, to forgive divine.
Conceit - ANS-an ingenious and fanciful notion or conception, usually expressed
through an elaborate analogy, and pointing to a striking parallel between two seemingly
dissimilar things. A conceit may be a brief metaphor, but it also may form the framework
of an entire poem.
The following lines from John Keats' Endymion are euphonious:
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
eye rhyme - ANS-rhyme that appears correct from spelling, but is half-rhyme or slant
rhyme from the pronunciation.
Examples include "watch" and "match," and "love" and "move."
feminine rhyme - ANS-a rhyme of two syllables, one stressed and one unstressed, as
"waken" and "forsaken" and "audition" and "rendition." Feminine rhyme is sometimes
called double rhyme.
Verified Solutions
Alliteration - ANS-The repetition of identical or similar consonant sounds, normally at the
beginnings of words.
Ex: "Gnus never knew pneumonia" is an example of alliteration since, despite the
spellings, all four words begin with the "n" sound.
Allusion - ANS-A reference in a work of literature to something outside the work,
especially to a well-known historical or literary event, person, or work.
Ex: When T.S. Eliot writes, "To have squeezed the universe into a ball" in "The Love
Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," he is alluding to the lines "Let us roll our strength and
all/Our sweetness up into one ball" in Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress."
Antithesis - ANS-A figure of speech characterized by strongly contrasting words,
clauses, sentences, or ideas, as in "Man proposes; God disposes." Antithesis is a
balancing of one term against another for emphasis or stylistic effectiveness.
Ex: The second line of the following couplet by Alexander Pope is an example of
antithesis:
The hungry judges soon the sentence sign,
And wretches hang that jury-men may dine.
Apostrophe - ANS-a figure of speech in which someone (usually, but not always
absent), some abstract quality, or a nonexistent personage is directly addressed as
though present.
Ex: Following are two examples of apostrophe:
Papa Above!
Regard a Mouse.
-Emily Dickinson
Milton! Thou shouldst be living in this hour;
England hath need of thee . . ..
-William Wordsworth
Assonance - ANS-the repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds. "A land laid waste
with all its young men slain" repeats the same "a" sound in "laid," "waste," and "slain."
, ballad meter - ANS-a four-line stanza rhymed abcd with four feet in lines one and three
and three feet in lines two and four.
Ex: O mother, mother make my bed.
O make it soft and narrow.
Since my love died for me today,
I'll die for him tomorrow.
blank verse - ANS-unrhymed iambic pentameter.
Ex: Blank verse is the meter of most of Shakespeare's plays, as well as that of Milton's
Paradise Lost.
cacophony - ANS-a harsh, unpleasant combination of sounds or tones. It may be an
unconscious flaw in the poet's music, resulting in harshness of sound or difficulty of
articulation, or it may be used consciously for effect, as Browning and Eliot often use it.
See, for example, the following line from Browning's "Rabbi Ben Ezra":
Irks care the crop-full bird? Frets doubt the maw-crammed beast?
caesura - ANS-a pause, usually near the middle of a line of verse, usually indicated by
the sense of the line, and often greater than the normal pause.
For example, one would naturally pause after "human' in the following line from
Alexander Pope:
To err is human, to forgive divine.
Conceit - ANS-an ingenious and fanciful notion or conception, usually expressed
through an elaborate analogy, and pointing to a striking parallel between two seemingly
dissimilar things. A conceit may be a brief metaphor, but it also may form the framework
of an entire poem.
The following lines from John Keats' Endymion are euphonious:
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
eye rhyme - ANS-rhyme that appears correct from spelling, but is half-rhyme or slant
rhyme from the pronunciation.
Examples include "watch" and "match," and "love" and "move."
feminine rhyme - ANS-a rhyme of two syllables, one stressed and one unstressed, as
"waken" and "forsaken" and "audition" and "rendition." Feminine rhyme is sometimes
called double rhyme.
