I can not stress enough the importance of ANNOTATING the selected readings (prose, poetry, drama, etc.) and the need to PLAN BEFORE you write your essays for the AP LIT EXAM.

Welcome to the AP LITERATURE FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page

Welcome to the FAQ or Frequently Asked Questions about the AP LITERATURE EXAMINATION.

Using the questions asked by students, I have created a page for students. If you have a question that is NOT answered here, feel free to email me at richard.ehrlich@palmbeachschools.org .

This SITE SHOULD WALK YOU THROUGH THE ENTIRE EXAM!!!

NOTE: When you write your AP LIT essays...

REMINDER: Most high-scoring essays are at least two full pages each of writing.

Your thesis should be an ARGUMENT based on the DETAILS of the prompt. The prompts will ALWAYS state what you what must discuss so READ THE PROMPTS carefully.
Your essay's body should be addressing the prompt and have paragraphs on such things as:
setting (integral vs. background),
plot and characterization (dynamic SHIFTS in prose and poetry SHOULD ALWAYS be addressed but do not forget about the stock and static characters too; look for FOILS or contrasting characters);
point of view (omniscience, limited omniscience, objective, etc. AND how this affects or influences the literary work);
any sense of IRONY should be examined;
any sense of SYMBOLISM should be examined; any sense of hyperbole, understatements, etc. should be examined).
MOST IMPORTANT to address is any metaphors used that explore the PURPOSE of the work.
Try to connect to literary movements and / or other literary works.

FOCUS on COMPLEXITY in the works. Consider anything that makes the work allegorical or connecting to the bigger world. Take the microcosm and make it also about the macrocosm.

Remember, to construct a compelling literary argument that explores an author's purpose and the human truth examined within a text, a defensible thesis is paramount. This central argument serves as the foundation for your interpretation. DO NOT JUST LIST TERMS in your thesis.
Subsequently, the integration of specific textual evidence, through direct quotation or paraphrasing (used throughout), is crucial for substantiating your claims.
Do not just present evidence; thorough explication and commentary are necessary to explore its significance. Explain the effect on the validity or truth of your thesis.
For a robust analysis, incorporating and explaining multiple pieces of evidence (at least two quotes or so per paragraph is best) within each paragraph strengthens your interpretation.
Finally, a well-developed literary argument culminates in an insightful conclusion that offers a nuanced perspective on the analysis presented, extending beyond a simple summary of the preceding points.

NOTE: Writing in third-person makes you sound more objective.

NOTE: Write in present tense.

PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS! I am sure that you are going to do great!

NOTE: The secret to reading comprehension is to slow down. Take your time. Read and make notes as you go. Also, if there are questions or a prompt to answer, read them over so you know what to look for. Again, there is no substitute for annotating and note-taking as you read.

What content is covered in the AP Literature examination?

The College Board tends to include works from the sixteenth (16th) century through to the twenty-first (21st) century.

Occasionally you may also see a work from before this time period, such as Beowulf or The Iliad or The Odyssey.

Chaucer, among others, has appeared as well.

The skills most tested?

The use and function of characterization

The use of and function of plot and structure

The use of and function of point of view / speaker / narrative

The use of and function of setting

The use of and function of imagery

The use of and function of symbolism

The use of and function of diction

The use of and function of syntax

The ability to compare ideas, concepts, etc.

This is about the demonstrating the ability to make substantiated arguments AND interpretations!

THIS IS NOT A TEST OF SUMMARY! THIS IS A TEST OF PROVING AN ANALYSIS!

This is a test on BIG IDEAS!

Check out this site for terms and explanations of terms: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSEuljLye7NTirILYGH19NVTtQh8O1wK-

What is the structure of the AP Literature examination?

Section I: Multiple Choice

55 Questions | 1 Hour | 45% of Exam Score

Includes FIVE sets of questions with 8–13 questions per set.
Each set is preceded by a passage of prose fiction, drama, or poetry of varying difficulty.
The multiple-choice section will always include at least TWO prose fiction passages (this may include drama) and at least TWO poetry passages.

Section II: Free Response

3 Questions | 2 Hours | 55% of Exam Score

Students write essays that respond to three free-response prompts from the following categories:

A literary analysis of a given poem
A literary analysis of a given passage of prose fiction (this may include drama)
An analysis that examines a specific concept, issue, or element in a work of literary merit selected by the student.

Tips for Enhancing your writing

The "five grammar brushstrokes" refer to a set of sentence-structure techniques that can enhance writing, particularly descriptive writing. These techniques are popularized by Harry Noden in his "Image Grammar" approach. Here's a breakdown:

Participles:

These are verb forms (usually ending in "-ing" or "-ed") used as adjectives to add action and detail.

Example: "Hissing, slithering, and coiling, the snakes attacked."

Absolutes:

These are noun + participle combinations that modify an entire clause, adding detail and imagery.

Example: "Hands shaking, feet trembling, the climber edged along the cliff."

Appositives:

These are nouns or noun phrases that rename or provide additional information about a nearby noun.

Example: "The raccoon, a scavenger, enjoys turtle eggs."

Adjectives Out of Order:

This technique involves placing adjectives after the noun they modify, often for emphasis or to create a more poetic effect.

Example: "The bull moose, red-eyed and angry, charged."

Action Verbs:

This emphasizes the use of strong, vivid verbs to replace weaker "being" verbs (is, was, were).

Example: Instead of "The road was on the left," use "The road curled around the left."

These "brushstrokes" are designed to help writers "paint" vivid images with their words, making their writing more engaging and descriptive.

What novels have been used most often on the AP LIT EXAM? < Click here to find out >

NOTE: THE AP LIT EXAM requires that you write THREE ESSAYS. One on PROSE. One on POETRY. One is FREE RESPONSE (based on novels, plays, read outside and inside the classroom)

Titles from Open Response Questions*

Updated from an original list by Norma J. Wilkerson.

Works referred to on the AP Literature exams since 1971 (specific years in parentheses)

Please note that only authors were recommended in early years, not specific titles..

Absalom, Absalom by William Faulkner (76, 00, 10, 12)

Adam Bede by George Eliot (06)

The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow (13)

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (80, 82, 85, 91, 92, 94, 95, 96, 99, 05, 06, 07, 08, 11, 13)

The Aeneid by Virgil (06, 18)

Agnes of God by John Pielmeier (00)

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (97, 02, 03, 08, 12, 14)

The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo (19)

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood (00, 04, 08, 18)

All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren (00, 02, 04, 07, 08, 09, 11)

All My Sons by Arthur Miller (85, 90)

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (18)

All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy (95, 96, 06, 07, 08, 10, 11, 13)

America is in the Heart by Carlos Bulosan (95)

An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser (81, 82, 95, 03)

American Pastoral by Philip Roth (09)

The American by Henry James (05, 07, 10)

Angels in America by Tony Kushner (09)

Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner (10)

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (80, 91, 99, 03, 04, 06, 08, 09, 16)

Another Country by James Baldwin (95, 10, 12)

Antigone by Sophocles (79, 80, 90, 94, 99, 03, 05, 09, 11, 14, 19)

Anthony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare (80, 91)

Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler (94)

Armies of the Night by Norman Mailer (76)

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner (78, 89, 90, 94, 01, 04, 06, 07, 09)

As You Like It by William Shakespeare (92 05, 06, 10, 16)

Atonement by Ian McEwan (07, 11, 13, 16)

Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man by James Weldon Johnson (02, 05)

The Awakening by Kate Chopin (87, 88, 91, 92, 95, 97, 99, 02, 04, 07, 09, 11, 14, 19)

“The Bear” by William Faulkner (94, 06)

Beloved by Toni Morrison (90, 99, 01, 03, 05, 07, 09, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)

A Bend in the River by V. S. Naipaul (03, 15)

Benito Cereno by Herman Melville (89)

Beowulf (18)

Billy Budd by Herman Melville (79, 81, 82, 83, 85, 99, 02, 04, 05, 07, 08, 15)

The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter (89, 97)

Black Boy by Richard Wright (06, 08, 13, 15)

Bleak House by Charles Dickens (94, 00, 04, 09, 10)

Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya (94, 96, 97, 99, 04, 05, 06, 08)

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood (07, 11, 16)

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison (95, 08, 09, 19)

Bone: A Novel by Fae M. Ng (03)

The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan (06, 07, 11, 16)

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (89, 05, 09, 10, 17, 19)

Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat (13)

Brideshead Revisted by Evelyn Waugh (12, 19)

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (19)

Brighton Rock by Graham Greene (79)

Broken for You by Stephanie Kallos (09)

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevski (90, 08)

Brown Girl, Brownstones by Paule Marshall (13)

The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout (16)

Candida by George Bernard Shaw (80)

Candide by Voltaire (80, 86, 87, 91, 95, 96, 04, 06, 10, 19)

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (06)

The Caretaker by Harold Pinter (85)

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (82, 85, 87, 89, 94, 01, 03, 04, 05, 07, 08, 11, 15, 16)

The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger (01, 08, 11, 13, 19)

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams (00)

Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood (94, 08, 09, 13, 15)

The Centaur by John Updike (81)

Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko (94, 96, 97, 99, 01, 03, 05, 06, 07, 09, 12)

The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov (71, 77, 06, 07, 09, 10)

The Cider House Rules by John Irving (13)

The Chosen by Chaim Potok (08, 13)

“Civil Disobedience” by Henry David Thoreau (76)

Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier (06, 08)

The Color Purple by Alice Walker (92, 94, 95, 96, 97, 05, 08, 09, 12, 13, 16)

Coming Through Slaughter by Michael Ondaatje (01)

Copenhagen by Michael Frayn (09)

The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett (10)

Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton (85, 87, 91, 95, 96, 07, 09)

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevski (76, 79, 80, 82, 88, 96, 99, 00, 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 09, 10, 11, 16, 18)

“The Crisis” by Thomas Paine (76)

The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy (09)

The Crucible by Arthur Miller (71, 83, 86, 89, 04, 05, 09, 14, 15, 16)

Daisy Miller by Henry James (97, 03, 12)

Dancing at Lughnasa by Brian Friel (01)

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (78, 83, 06, 13)

“The Dead” by James Joyce (97)

Death in Venice by Thomas Mann (18)

The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy (86)

Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller (86, 88, 94, 03, 04, 05, 07, 12, 14, 19)

Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty (97)

Desire under the Elms by Eugene O’Neill (81)

Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler (97)

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (06)

The Diviners by Margaret Laurence (95)

Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe (79, 86, 99, 04, 11)

Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak (10)

A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen (71, 83, 87, 88, 95, 05, 09, 16)

The Dollmaker by Harriet Arnot (91)

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes (01, 04, 06, 08, 19)

Dracula by Bram Stoker (17, 18)

Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia (03)

Dutchman by Amiri Baraka/Leroi Jones (03, 06)

East of Eden by John Steinbeck (06)

Emma by Jane Austen (96, 08)

An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen (76, 80, 87, 99, 01, 07)

The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje (17)

Equus by Peter Shaffer (92, 99, 00, 01, 08, 09)

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton (80, 85, 03, 05, 06, 07, 14)

The Eumenides by Aeschylus (in The Orestia) (96)

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Clear by Jonathan Safran Foer (16)

The Fall by Albert Camus (81)

A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway (99, 04, 09)

The Father by August Strindberg (01)

Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev (90)

Faust by Johann Goethe (02, 03)

The Federalist by Alexander Hamilton (76)

Fences by August Wilson (02, 03, 05, 09, 10)

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry (03)

Fifth Business by Robertson Davis (00, 07)

The Fixer by Bernard Malamud (07)

For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway (03, 06)

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (89, 00, 03, 06, 08, 15, 17, 18)

A Free Life: A Novel by Ha Jin (10)

A Gathering of Old Men by Ernest Gaines (00, 11)

Germinal by Emile Zola (09)

A Gesture Life by Chang-Rae Lee (04, 05, 15, 19)

Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen (00, 04)

The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams (71, 90, 94, 97, 99, 02, 08, 09, 10, 12)

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (10, 11, 13)

Going After Cacciato by Tim O’Brien (01, 06, 10)

The Golden Bowl by Henry James (09)

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (18)

The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford (00, 11)

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (95, 03, 06, 09, 10, 11, 12, 13)

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (79, 80, 88, 89, 92, 95, 96, 00, 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 07, 08, 10, 12, 13, 15, 17, 18, 19)

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (82, 83, 88, 91, 92, 97, 00, 02, 04, 05, 07, 10, 16, 19)

Grendel by John Gardner (17)

Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin (83, 88, 90, 05, 09)

Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift (87, 89, 01, 04, 06, 09)

The Hairy Ape by Eugene O’Neill (89, 0994, 97, 99, 00)

Hamlet by William Shakespeare (88, 94, 97, 99, 00, 16)

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (03, 09, 19)

Hard Times by Charles Dickens (87, 90, 09)

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (71, 76, 91, 94, 96, 99, 00, 01, 02, 03, 04, 06, 09, 10, 11, 12, 15,

16, 17)

The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene (71)

Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen (79, 92, 00, 02, 03, 05)

Henry IV, Parts I and II by William Shakespeare (80, 90, 08)

Henry V by William Shakespeare (02)

A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes (08)

The Homecoming by Harold Pinter (78, 90)

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi (18)

Home to Harlem by Claude McKay (10)

A House for Mr. Biswas by V. S. Naipul (10)

House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday (95, 06, 09)

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton (04, 07, 10, 19)

The House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne (89)

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros (08, 10, 13)

The Iliad by Homer (80, 17, 18)

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (06, 17, 19)

The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai (10)

In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O’Brien (00, 16)

In the Time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez (05)

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (76, 77, 78, 82, 83, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 91, 94, 95, 96, 97, 01, 03, 04, 05, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 19)

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (78, 79, 80, 88, 91, 94, 95, 96, 97, 99, 00, 05, 07, 08, 10, 13, 16, 17)

Jasmine by Bharati Mukherjee (99, 10, 13)

J.B. by Archibald MacLeish (81, 94)

Joe Turner’s Come and Gone by August Wilson (00, 04)

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan (97, 03, 13)

Joseph Andrews by Henry Fielding (99)

Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy (71, 76, 80, 85, 87, 95, 04, 09, 10, 16)

Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare (82, 97, 05, 07, 09)

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair (77, 78, 82, 88, 89, 90, 96, 09)

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami (08)

Kindred by Octavia Butler (18)

King Lear by William Shakespeare (77, 78, 82, 88, 89, 90, 96, 01, 03, 04, 05, 06, 08, 10, 11, 12, 14, 18, 19)

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (07, 08, 09, 15, 16)

Lady Windermere’s Fan by Oscar Wilde (09)

The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper (15)

A Lesson before Dying by Ernest Gaines (99, 11)

Letters from an American Farmer by St. John de Crèvecœur (76), 11)

Linden Hills by Gloria Naylor (14)

Light in August by William Faulkner (71, 79, 81, 82, 83, 85, 95, 99, 03, 06, 11, 17)

The Little Foxes by Lillian Hellman (85, 90, 10)

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (08)

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (19)

Long Day’s Journey into Night by Eugene O’Neill (90, 03, 07)

Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe (10)

Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad (77, 78, 82, 86, 00, 03, 07)

Lord of the Flies by William Golding (85, 08, 15)

The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh (89)

Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich (95)

“Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T. S. Eliot (85)

Lysistrata by Aristophanes (87)

Macbeth by William Shakespeare (83, 99, 03, 05, 09, 17)

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert (80, 85, 04, 05, 06, 09, 10, 16, 18)

Mama Dayby Willow Springs (18)

Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane (12)

Main Street by Sinclair Lewis (87, 09)

Major Barbara by George Bernard Shaw (79, 96, 04, 07, 09, 11)

Man and Superman by George Bernard Shaw (81, 18)

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (03, 06, 15)

Master Harold...and the Boys by Athol Fugard (03, 08, 09)

The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy (94, 99, 00, 02, 07, 10, 11, 17)

M. Butterfly by David Henry Wang (95, 11, 12, 16)

Medea by Euripides (82, 92, 95, 01, 03, 15)

The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers (97, 08)

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards (09, 14, 16)

The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare (85, 91, 95, 02, 03, 11, 15)

Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (78, 89, 17, 18)

Middlemarch by George Eliot (95, 04, 05, 07, 17)

Middle Passage by V. S. Naipaul (06)

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (16)

Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie (18)

A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare (06, 12)

The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot (90, 92, 04, 19)

The Misanthrope by Moliere (08)

Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West (89)

Moby Dick by Herman Melville (76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 89, 94, 96, 01, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 09)

Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe (76, 77, 86, 87, 95, 09)

Monkey Bridge by Lan Cao (00, 03)

The Moor’s Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie (07)

Mother Courage and Her Children by Berthold Brecht (85, 87, 06)

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (94, 97, 04, 05, 07, 11)

Mrs. Warren’s Profession by George Bernard Shaw (87, 90, 95, 02, 09)

Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare (97, 14, 16)

Murder in the Cathedral by T. S. Eliot (76, 80, 85, 95, 07, 11)

“My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning (85)

My Ántonia by Willa Cather (03, 08, 10, 12, 19)

My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok (03)

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (09, 10, 13)

Native Son by Richard Wright (79, 82, 85, 87, 95, 01, 04, 09, 11, 12, 19)

Native Speaker by Chang-Rae Lee (99, 03, 05, 07, 08)

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (09, 10, 16)

Night by Elie Weisel (15)

1984 by George Orwell (87, 94, 05, 09)

No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy (17)

No Exit by John Paul Sartre (86, 12)

Noah’s Compass by Anne Tyler (14)

No-No Boy by John Okada (95)

Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoevski (89)

Obasan by Joy Kogawa (94, 95, 04, 05, 06, 07, 10)

The Octopus by Frank Norris (09)

The Odyssey by Homer (86, 06, 10, 15, 17, 19)

Oedipus Rex by Sophocles (77, 85, 88, 00, 03, 04, 11, 17)

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (01)

Old School by Tobia Wolff (08)

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens (09, 15)

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn (05, 10)

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey (01, 12, 15)

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (89, 04, 12)

O Pioneers! by Willa Cather (06)

The Optimist’s Daughter by Eudora Welty (94)

The Orestia by Aeschylus (90)

Orlando: A Biography by Virginia Woolf (04, 17)

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (12, 14, 16, 17)

Othello by William Shakespeare (79, 85, 88, 92, 95, 03, 04, 07, 11, 14, 15, 16)

The Other by Thomas Tryon (10)

Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens (90)

Our Town by Thornton Wilder (86, 97, 09)

Out of Africa by Isaak Dinesen (06)

Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov (01)

Pamela by Samuel Richardson (86)

A Passage to India by E. M. Forster (71, 77, 78, 88, 91, 92, 07, 09, 12, 18)

Paradise Lost by John Milton (85, 86, 10)

Passing by Nella Larsen (11)

Peer Gynt by Henrik Ibsen (06)

Père Goriot by Honore de Balzac (02)

Persuasion by Jane Austen (90, 05, 07)

Phaedre by Jean Racine (92, 03)

The Piano Lesson by August Wilson (96, 99, 07, 08, 10, 12)

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (02, 16, 18)

The Plague by Albert Camus (02, 09, 12)

The Playboy of the Western World by John Millington Synge (17)

Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov (97)

Pocho by Jose Antonio Villarreal (02, 08)

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (10, 11, 12, 14)

Portrait of a Lady by Henry James ( 88, 92, 96, 03, 05, 07, 11, 14, 16, 19)

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce (76, 77, 80, 86, 88, 96, 99, 04, 05, 08, 09, 10, 11, 13, 18, 19)

The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene (95)

The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay (18)

Praisesong for the Widow by Paule Marshall (96)

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving (09, 14, 17)

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (83, 88, 92, 97, 08, 11, 12, 16)

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark (90, 08)

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (13)

Push by Sapphire (07)

Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw (03, 05, 08)

Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow (03, 07)

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry (87, 90, 94, 96, 99, 07, 09, 12, 14, 18)

The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope (81)

The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane (08, 15)

Redburn by Herman Melville (87)

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro (00, 03, 11)

Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie (08, 09)

The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy (07, 18)

Rhinoceros by Eugene Ionesco (09)

Richard III by William Shakespeare (79)

A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean (08)

The Road by Cormac McCarthy (10)

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (10)

A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf (76)

A Room with a View by E. M. Forster (03)

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare (90, 92, 97, 08)

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard (81, 94, 00, 04, 05, 06, 10, 11)

Saint Joan by George Bernard Shaw (95)

The Sandbox by Edward Albee (71)

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (71, 77, 78, 83, 88, 91, 99, 02, 04, 05, 06, 11, 14, 15)

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (13)

Sent for You Yesterday by John Edgar Wideman (03)

A Separate Peace by John Knowles (82, 07, 13)

Set This House on Fire by William Styron (11)

The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx (97)

Siddhartha by Herman Hesse (13)

Silas Marner by George Eliot (02)

Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser (87, 02, 04, 09, 10, 15)

Sister of My Heart by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (10)

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut (91, 04)

Snow by Orhan Pamuk (09)

Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson (00, 10, 12)

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (16)

A Soldier’s Play by Charles Fuller (11)

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison (81, 88, 96, 00, 04, 05, 06, 07, 10, 13)

Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence (77, 90)

Sophie’s Choice by William Styron (09, 15)

The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (13)

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner (77, 86, 97, 01, 07, 08, 13, 19)

The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence (96, 04)

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski (11, 13)

The Stranger by Albert Camus (79, 82, 86, 04)

A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams (91, 92, 01, 04, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11, 14)

The Street by Ann Petry (07)

Sula by Toni Morrison (92, 97, 02, 04, 07, 08, 10, 12)

Surfacing by Margaret Atwood (05)

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway (85, 91, 95, 96, 04, 05, 12, 19)

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (82, 91, 04, 08, 14)

Tartuffe by Moliere (87)

The Tempest by William Shakespeare (71, 78, 96, 03, 05, 07, 10, 18, 19)

Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy (82, 91, 03, 06, 07, 12, 14, 15)

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zorah Neale Hurston (88, 90, 91, 96, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 10, 11, 13, 14, 17)

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (91, 97, 03, 09, 10, 11, 14, 18)

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien (04, 09)

A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley (06, 14)

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (11, 13)

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (08, 09, 11, 13, 15, 19)

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf (77, 86, 88, 08, 18)

Tom Jones by Henry Fielding (90, 00, 06, 08, 17)

Tracks by Louise Erdrich (05)

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (13)

The Trial by Franz Kafka (88, 89, 00, 11)

Trifles by Susan Glaspell (00)

Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne (86)

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (92, 94, 00, 02, 04, 08)

Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare (85, 94, 96, 11, 16, 17)

Typical American by Gish Jen (02, 03, 05)

Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (87, 09)

U.S.A. (trilogy) by John Dos Passos (09)

The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith (06)

Victory by Joseph Conrad (83)

Volpone by Ben Jonson (83)

Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett (77, 85, 86, 89, 94, 01, 09, 12, 17)

The Warden by Anthony Trollope (96)

Washington Square by Henry James (90)

The Wasteland by T. S. Eliot (81)

Watch on the Rhine by Lillian Hellman (87)

The Way of the World by William Congreve (71)

The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope (06)

We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates (07)

When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka (12, 19)

Who Has Seen the Wind by W. O. Mitchell (11)

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee (88, 94, 00, 04, 07, 11, 15, 16)

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (89, 92, 05, 07, 08)

The Wild Duck by Henrik Ibsen (78)

Winter in the Blood by James Welch (95)

Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare (82, 89, 95, 06)

Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor (82, 89, 95, 09, 10)

Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston (91, 08, 13)

The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor (09, 10, 12, 14, 16)

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (71,77, 78, 79, 83, 86, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 96, 97, 99, 01, 06, 07, 08, 10, 12, 15, 16, 17)

A Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Michael Dorris (16)

The Zoo Story by Edward Albee (82, 01)

Zoot Suit by Luis Valdez (95)

Most Frequently Cited 1970-2019

29 Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

22 Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

21 Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

19 Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

19 King Lear by William Shakespeare

17 Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevski

16 Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

16 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

15 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

15 Moby Dick by Herman Melville

14 The Awakening by Kate Chopin

14 The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

14 The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

13 Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zorah Neale Hurston

13 Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

12 Billy Budd by Herman Melville

12 Beloved by Toni Morrison

11 Antigone by Sophocles

11 Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko

11 Light in August by William Faulkner

11 Native Son by Richard Wright

11 Othello by William Shakespeare

10 As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

10 Candide by Voltaire

10 The Color Purple by Alice Walker

10 Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller

10 The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams

10 Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

10 A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

10 A Passage to India by E. M. Forster

10 A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry

9 The Crucible by Arthur Miller

9 Portrait of a Lady by Henry James

9 The Tempest by William Shakespeare

8 All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy

8 Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

8 Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya

8 The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

8 Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy

8 The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

8 Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

8 Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard

8 The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

8 The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

8 Sula by Toni Morrison

8 Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

8 Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

8 Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett

7 All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren

7 Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton

7 Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

7 Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad

7 The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy

7 Medea by Euripides

7 The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare

7 Oedipus Rex by Sophocles

7 Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

7 Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee

6 Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

6 A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen

6 An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen

6 Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

6 Equus by Peter Shaffer

7 Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

6 Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift

6 Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen

6 Major Barbara by George Bernard Shaw

6 Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe

6 Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

6 Murder in the Cathedral by T. S. Eliot

6 Obasan by Joy Kogawa

6 Odyssey by Homer

6 The Piano Lesson by August Wilson

6 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

6 The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

5 Bleak House by Charles Dickens

5 The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

5 The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chkhov

5 Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe

5 Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

5 Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin

5 Hamlet by William Shakespeare

5 Macbeth by William Shakespeare

5 Mrs. Warren’s Profession by George Bernard Shaw

5 My Antonia by Willa Cather\

5 Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser

5 A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

5 Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

5 Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor

Shakespeare - All Plays Total = 86

2 Anthony and Cleopatra

4 As You Like It

5 Hamlet

3 Henry IV, Parts I and II

1 Henry V

4 Julius Caesar

19 King Lear

5 Macbeth

7 Merchant of Venice

2 A Midsummer Night's Dream

2 Much Ado About Nothing

10 Othello

1 Richard III

4 Romeo and Juliet

9 The Tempest

4 Twelfth Night

4 Winter’s Tale

Classical Greek & Roman Literature = 34

2 The Aeneid by Virgil

11 Antigone by Sophocles

1 The Eumenides by Aeschylus

2 The Iliad by Homer

1 Lysistrata by Aristophanes

7 Medea by Euripides

5 The Odyssey by Homer

6 Oedipus Rex by Sophocles

1 The Orestia by Aeschylus

What are some good time management strategies? Click here for more information.

Time is relative. Sorry, had to.

Make sure to annotate whatever you are reading AS you read and to plan BEFORE you write.
Annotation and planning mean a lot in cutting down the time needed.
When you analyze, spend more time analyzing than editorializing. In other words, focus on finding the evidence (annotating) and then commenting on the evidence. Prove that the author who has a real message to tell the world!

How long should you spend per question on the multiple choice section?

You should spend no more than one minute per multiple choice question. In others words, "It should take a minute to win it."

Any longer would be using too much time. It would be, likely, best to skip the question and come back to the question later.

NOTE: MAKE SURE YOU COME BACK TO THE QUESTION. Mark the question. Circle the question. Fold down the page in the text booklet. Make the skipped question easy to find.

Though you do not lose ANY points for NOT answering an AP LITERATURE EXAMINATION question, you can NOT GAIN any points if you do not, at least, try.

Even a best GUESS is better than NO answer at all.

Should we spend equal time on each of the three essays that we need to write for the AP LIT EXAM? Click here for info.

Try to spend no more than 40 minutes per essay.

At 35 minutes, you should make sure to review the essay for errors and then add in a final statement or conclusion addressing the defensible thesis and the work as well as points made.

Go back after you have written ALL three essays to check again or add more, if you have time.

THE LIMITED TIME FRAME means that you must annotate what you read AS you read. PLAN it out before writing.

What overall advice would you suggest for the exam? Click here for info.

You should spend NO more than ONE minute per question in the multiple-choice section. In other words, it should take "One minute to win it!"

Skip ANY question that takes more than a minute to answer. If you can go back later at the end for the ones you skipped, do it. You do not lose points for wrong answers; but, you can not gain answers for unanswered questions! An educated guess is BETTER than no guess.

Also, make sure you write ALL THREE essays in the essay section. Writing only one or two essays is just not enough. Even two strong essays does NOT mean a "yay" moment.

After 35-minutes in each essay, stop and review the essay and make any corrections that you can.

Make sure you have:

A) a clear defensible thesis (a thesis that both takes a side AND answers the prompt);

B) lots of evidence (6-9 pieces of evidence, if possible) with explanation (aka commentary);

C) a final statement or conclusion that restates the defensible thesis and the key points from the essay to support the thesis. This should be added, especially when near the 35-minute mark for each essay.

HINT: Annotate as you read. Do NOT miss something important to write about because you just THOUGHT you would remember. Annotating and note-taking as you read WILL HELP!

PLEASE review our FAQ page. I added questions AND answers AS WELL AS additional materials to help prepare or the exam. Always room to improve! https://sites.google.com/palmbeachschools.org/english-with-ehrlich/faq-for-ap-literature

YOU GOT THIS!

Bring mints with you for the exam. Will refresh you and wake you up.

Eat some protein in the morning. Body needs fuel to THINK!

Have a jacket if you get cold, especially if taking the test in the gym.

If coming to school for the test, COME early. Test starts at 8:30 but you should be here by 8 or so. Being late could keep you from taking the exam.

Again, YOU GOT THIS!

What are some Test-taking strategies? < Click here to find out >

Keep in mind that the AP LITERATURE examination is a standardized examination. It comes from the same company that brings you the SAT.

I am confident that you know that their questions have multiple answer choices. Only ONE answer, though, is going to be the right answer. Your job is to figure out which one it is. Or, at the least, make the BEST guess at which one it is.

Generally, one or two of the answers are just wrong or incorrect. You should be able to get rid of those easily.

The answers that remain may SEEM to be correct, or are CLOSE to being correct; but, they are not correct. Usually, there is some clue in the answer that may reveal the answer is not AS GOOD as others.

Have trouble figuring it out? Then, remember to look for DRAW (yes, I made this name up but it is based on real test-taking techniques).

Look for the D or distractor answers. Often the College Board likes to throw in answers that are there to throw you off. Some fancy word like "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" so you say, "That is it!" It is rarely to never it.

Look for the R or right answer. There is only ONE right answer.

Look for the A or alternate answers. There are the answers that seem right but are not.

Look for the W or wrong answers. These are answers that are just plain wrong.

Get rid of the WRONG answers. Get rid of DISTRACTOR answers. Make your best educated from what remains whenever you get stuck.

I found this website may be useful to you when considering AP LITERATURE MULTIPLE CHOICE STRATEGIES: http://www.aplithelp.com/avoiding-multiple-choice-mania/ .

NOTE: Never use abbreviations or symbols, like an ampersand (&), in your writing. Always write the words out.

What do I do if I see an answer in the choices that I do not recognize? Click here for info.

Test designers often put in words that you would NOT likely recognize. People then see a word like "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" and think "I have no idea what that is. SO, must be the answer."

It is NOT likely the answer. More likely a DISTRACTION from the answer.

Click on the videos noted in each section to learn overviews, hints, etc.

Any tips on analyzing poetry? Prose? Click here for info.

Try this site: http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/30738_analysis.pdf This will help you analyze POETRY.

Try this site too: https://www.matsuk12.us/cms/lib/AK01000953/Centricity/Domain/2596/didls.pdf . This will help you analyze PROSE.

Watch these videos below and the videos lower in the page on TPCASTT, DIDLS, etc.

Just remember that literary terms and techniques are TOOLS. The EXAM readers want to see HOW the author USES these tools. These are the tools you would analyze as you EXPLORE YOUR DEFENSIBLE THESIS. See the THREE ROWS RUBRIC (and other materials, videos, etc.) posted on https://sites.google.com/palmbeachschools.org/english-with-ehrlich/faq-for-ap-literature

What are the eleven or more types of poems that you should know? < Click here for info >.

From https://www.grammarly.com/blog/creative-writing/types-of-poetry/

11 types of poems to know

1 Acrostic

You might remember writing acrostic poems in elementary school. In an acrostic poem, the lines are arranged so the first letter in each line helps to spell out a word. Here’s an example:

Perfect tool for writing on the fly

Evolution from quills to fountains, ballpoints to rollerballs

No touchscreen or keyboard can replicate the satisfaction of writing by hand

The lines in an acrostic poem can be full lines or single words. There is no required meter or rhyme scheme for acrostic poems; the only requirement is to form a word using the first letter of each line.

2 Ballad

There’s a reason so many songs are also called ballads—ballads are narrative poems characterized by their melodious rhyme scheme. A ballad can be any length, but it must be a series of rhyming quatrains. These quatrains, four-line stanzas, can follow any rhyme scheme. Commonly, the quatrains in a ballad follow an ABCB pattern, like this quatrain from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”:

And through the drifts the snowy clifts

Did send a dismal sheen

Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken—

The ice was all between

An ABCB rhyme scheme refers to the order of the repeated sounds at the end of each line. Here’s a quick example:

A: I write every day

B: Someday, I’ll finish my book

C: But sometimes I get so immersed

B: That I forget to cook!

ABCB isn’t the only acceptable rhyme scheme for ballads. Some follow an ABAB scheme, which means the first and third lines rhyme, and the second and fourth lines rhyme. Whichever rhyme scheme a ballad follows, the rhyme and meter give the poem a feeling of musicality.

3 Elegy

Unlike our previous entries, there are no length or form rules for elegies. However, there is a content requirement: Elegies are about death.

Generally, elegies are reflective and written to mourn an individual or group. They also frequently end with lines about hope and redemption. Elegies originated in ancient Greece, and over time, they morphed into the mourning poems we know them as today.

“Dirge Without Music” by Edna St. Vincent Millay is a well-known elegy. Take a look at this excerpt:

I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.

So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:

Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Crowned

With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.

4 Epic

There’s a reason the adjective epic refers to things that are huge, complex, and/or over-the-top: Epics are long, detailed poems that tell fantastical stories of larger-than-life characters. These stories can be fictional, historical, or historical with a generous helping of fiction and drama to heighten the emotion.

Epics have a long history. In fact, The Epic of Gilgamesh, considered by many to be the oldest surviving piece of literature, is an epic poem. Here is a snippet from the epic’s more than 2,000 words:

When the gods created Gilgamesh they gave him a perfect body. Shamash the glorious sun endowed him with beauty, Adad the god of the storm endowed him with courage, the great gods made his beauty perfect, surpassing all others, terrifying like a great wild bull. Two thirds they made him god and one third man.

5 Free verse

Free verse poetry explicitly does away with a consistent rhyme scheme and meter. A free verse poem can be long or short, and it can cover any subject matter—as long as it doesn’t have a consistent rhyme scheme or meter, it’s a free verse poem!

“Autumn” by T.E. Hulme is example of a short free verse poem:

A touch of cold in the Autumn night—

I walked abroad,

And saw the ruddy moon lean over a hedge

Like a red-faced farmer.

I did not stop to speak, but nodded,

And round about were the wistful stars

With white faces like town children.

Free verse vs. blank verse

While their names are similar, free verse poetry is quite different from blank verse poetry. Blank verse poetry is poetry with a specific meter, but no rhyme scheme. Although many blank verse poems are written in iambic pentameter, this is not a requirement. The only requirements for blank verse poetry are that the poem not rhyme and that it adheres to a consistent meter.

6 Ghazal

Ghazals are a type of Arabic poetry that dates to the seventh century. Ghazals are short poems composed of five or more couplets, usually no more than fifteen. A couplet is a pair of lines that typically have the same meter and rhyme. However, ghazals translated into English often can’t retain their rhyme schemes or meters. Sometimes, this rhyme is replaced by a repeated word or phrase, known as the radif or refrain. This word or phrase is repeated at the end of both lines in the first couplet and again in the second line of the succeeding couplets. The words that precede each instance of the refrain should rhyme, as in knot, bought, and taught in the example below. Finally, the last couplet typically includes a “signature”—a reference to the poem’s author.

Generally, ghazals deal with themes of love, both romantic and spiritual, and explore the pain of loss and separation from these kinds of love. Take a look at this excerpt from “Even the Rain,” a ghazal by Agha Shahid Ali:

What will suffice for a true-love knot? Even the rain?

But he has bought grief’s lottery, bought even the rain.

“Our glosses / wanting in this world”—“Can you remember?”

Anyone!—“when we thought / the poets taught” even the rain?

7 Haiku

A haiku is a short poem characterized by its unique form: a five-syllable line followed by a seven-syllable line followed by a five-syllable line. These lines do not rhyme.

Haiku hail from Japan. Originally, they were a component of a longer type of poem known as a renga. Over time, poets began writing standalone haiku, and today it’s recognized as a distinct poetic form. Haiku are typically about nature, and in Japanese, they contain a kireji, or “cutting word,” that divides the poem into two parts.

Take a look at this example by Matsuo Bashō:

An old silent pond . . .

A frog jumps into the pond,

splash! Silence again.

8 Limerick

Limericks are humorous, often tawdry poems that originated in the nineteenth century. As a form, limericks have specific rules:

Five lines
AABBA rhyme scheme
First two lines contain seven to ten syllables
Third and fourth lines contain five to seven syllables
Final line contains seven to ten syllables

Here’s an example of a famous limerick:

There once was a man from Nantucket

Who kept all his cash in a bucket.

But his daughter, named Nan,

Ran away with a man

And as for the bucket, Nantucket.

9 Ode

An ode is a poem that praises something or someone. Odes are not required to stick to any specific meter, rhyme scheme, or length—though they often use a formal tone.

Odes originated in ancient Greece, where they were performed with musical accompaniment. Today, they’re often written and recited in celebration of beloved individuals or organizations.

Here is an example of an ode by the Greek poet Pindar:

Creatures for a day! What is a man?

What is he not? A dream of a shadow

Is our mortal being. But when there comes to men

A gleam of splendor given of heaven

Then rests on them a light of glory

And blesséd are their days.

10 Sonnet

You might remember sonnets from English class. In fact, one thing you might remember is the two main types of sonnet: Shakespearean and Petrarchan.

Both are named for poets who not only made the form their own but also made it famous. Sonnets have roots in thirteenth century Italy. Both types of sonnet adhere to specific rules.

Shakespearean:

Three quatrains (four lines) and a couplet, which typically concludes the poem
ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG rhyme scheme

Petrarchan:

Two stanzas: one octave (eight lines) and one sestet (six lines)
The first eight lines present an argument or question
A volta, or “turn,” begins the sestet, which responds to the argument posed in the octave
ABBAABBA, CDCDCD/CDECDE rhyme scheme

Here is an example of a Petrarchan sonnet, “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she

With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

11 Villanelle

When you’ve got an obsession or another intense fixation, write about it in a villanelle. The villanelle is a poetic form that originated in France, initially as a variation of pastoral poetry. Villanelles are specifically about obsessions and follow a strict form:

19 lines
Five tercets (five lines)
One quatrain
ABA, ABA, ABA, ABA, ABA, ABAA rhyme scheme
Line 1 repeats in lines 6, 12, and 18
Line 3 repeats in lines 9, 15, and 19

Sylvia Plath’s “Mad Girl’s Love Song” is a famous twentieth century villanelle:

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;

I lift my lids and all is born again.

(I think I made you up inside my head.)

The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,

And arbitrary blackness gallops in:

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed

And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.

(I think I made you up inside my head.)

God topples from the sky, hell’s fires fade:

Exit seraphim and Satan’s men:

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I fancied you’d return the way you said,

But I grow old and I forget your name.

(I think I made you up inside my head.)

I should have loved a thunderbird instead;

At least when spring comes they roar back again.

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

(I think I made you up inside my head.)

Is there a website that gives solid information on literary terms and elements? Click here for info.

New sites are appearing all the time. My personal favorites are literarydevices.net and americanrhetoric.com . Check them out!

Check out this site for terms and explanations of terms: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSEuljLye7NTirILYGH19NVTtQh8O1wK-

What are the "dirty" words or words that you NEVER write in a literary analysis essay? Click here for info.

SUMMARY (or any variation) because a literary analysis essay NEVER summarizes. It is an analysis of the work and the elements used by the writer for a purpose.

DEFINE (or any variation) because a literary analysis essay NEVER defines terms or concepts. The terms or concepts are the tools of the writer. Explain HOW they are being used, not that they exist. NEVER just list terms or concepts either (a common mistake made, especially in introductions).

CLEAR or OBVIOUS (or any variation) because NOTHING is clear nor is ANYTHING obvious. The essay must make everything clear through EVIDENCE and COMMENTARY.

What should your essay / free response include?

Respond to the prompt with a thesis that presents a defensible interpretation.
Select and use evidence to support your line of reasoning.
Explain how the evidence supports your line of reasoning.
Use appropriate grammar and punctuation in communicating your argument.

Your essay MUST-DO's include coming up with an ORIGINAL and INTRIGUING argument that...

Uniformly offers evidence to support claims.
Focuses on importance of specific words and details.
Organizes argument as line of reasoning composed of several supporting claims, each with adequate evidence.
Explains how use of literary techniques contributes to interpretation.

Know the THREE ROW RUBRIC used to SCORE your essay

ROW A: Defensible Thesis

To earn the highest score of a 1 in this row (A) of the rubric, the student MUST respond to the prompt with a thesis that presents a defensible interpretation. In other words, an argumentative analysis.

ROW B: EVIDENCE AND COMMENTARY.

To earn the highest score of a 4 in this row (B) of the rubric, the student MUST select and use evidence to support the line of reasoning AND clearly explain how the evidence supports the line of reasoning. NOTE: Student should also use appropriate grammar and punctuation in communicating the argument.

ROW C: SOPHISTICATION.

To earn the highest score of a 1 in this row (C) of the rubric, the student MUST

1) show sophisticated word choice (no PURPLE PROSE or ornate words; words should be used with PURPOSE, not as decoration to try to seem more academic); AND/OR

2) demonstrate clear intertextuality (show strong connections to BIG ideas and allusions); AND/OR

3) present a complex literary argument; AND/OR

4) explore the complexities and deep emotions of character; AND/OR

5) explore the broader context of the work; AND/OR

6) demonstrate a vivid and persuasive style, etc.

Some AP LIT ESSAY WRITING TIPS!

ALWAYS NAME THE WRITERS AND THE TITLE OF WORKS!
Make sure you review essays for spelling and proper capitalization, especially when referring to the names of writers and the titles of the works.
Make sure to always identity the right genre. Do not call a poem … a novel.... or vice versa.
When quoting lines, generally, do NOT quote individual words (use partial or whole lines, in context).
NEVER copy a big chunk of multiple lines. Go line by line or a few lines at a time and THEN EXPLAIN the lines, symbols, etc.
When using multiple lines of poetry, do not go downward with the lines but across, using "/" to delineate the different lines: "The dictatorship of the flies, / Trujillo flies, Tacho flies, / Carias flies, Martines flies, / Ubico flies, damp flies...."

The AP LIT EXAM includes a FREE RESPONSE essay that requires you to pull, from your memory, information from books that you have read in the past.

Make sure that you read three to four books really well this year as well as go back and reread what you already read in previous classes.

There are lots of great websites to remind you about books that you have read. But, do not use them INSTEAD of reading books.

HONOR SYSTEM: I, generally, do not assign very many novels for the class due to the overwhelming testing information, terms, etc. that we have to learn. I tend to focus on short stories, excerpts, literature from previous exams, poetry, drama, etc.

It is your job to select books to read each year. I recommend reading a book a month, on your time, as your home-at home work.

What does a High SCORING ESSAY LOOK LIKE? is there a way you could post the structure of each of the essays? Like what we need to write about, what should be in each paragraph, etc? < Click here for more info. >

If asking what should be in each individual paragraph, that is impossible. Each essay would be different.

If asking HOW the essays should look (and are scored), then click on https://www.shmoop.com/college/ap-english-literature-composition-essay-examples.html or https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/ap22-apc-english-literature-q2.pdf

Each paragraph of the body would be a POINT made from the works themselves and explained using evidence and commentary. Instead, think of this way:

The introduction would introduce the works (titles if you have; often though a title is not provided to you), the genre (novel, poem, etc.), the movement (Contemporary, Modernism, etc. based on the year, which they often provide), and the defensible thesis (the fighting stance you have taken that is shown through the work).
The body would be pieces (evidence, such as quotes from the work or paraphrased examples AND your explanation or commentary on the evidence, connecting to the defensible thesis).
The conclusion or final statement would be a reiteration of the defensible thesis and the major points made in the essay.

Oscar Wilde: "Literature always anticipates life. It does not copy it but molds it to its purpose."

I can not stress enough the importance of ANNOTATING the selected readings (prose, poetry, drama, etc.) and the need to PLAN BEFORE you write your essays for the AP LIT EXAM.

Did you know that the College Board changed the structure of the prompts after 2019?

Before 2020, the College Board listed specific literary devices that you might use to guide your essay.

These will not be given in 2020 and beyond.

Your Question 2 AP prose analysis prompts will likely follow this structure:

The following excerpt is from [text and author, date of publication]. In this passage, [comment on what is being addressed in the passage]. Read the passage carefully. Then, in a well-written essay, analyze how [author] uses literary elements and techniques to [convey/portray/develop a thematic, topical, or structural aspect of the passage that is complex and specific to the passage provided].

From the AP English Literature and Composition Course and Exam Description

The following excerpt is from an 1852 novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne. In this passage, two characters who have been living on the Blithedale farm—a community designed to promote an ideal of equality achieved through communal rural living—are about to part ways. Read the passage carefully. Then, in a well-written essay, analyze how Hawthorne uses literary elements and techniques to portray the narrator’s complex attitude towards Zenobia.

Here is a great online article on the exam that you will take: https://fiveable.me/ap-lit/prose-fiction/prose-fiction-essay/study-guide/sJR7S2CaGFvRjOau7KAh

What should you NEVER do in the introduction of the essay? <Click here to find out>

🚩 NOTE: Do NOT list literary terms to analyze in the introduction. Examine IN the essay but focus on the theme or message. It is about the use, not the existence. How does the USE forward the theme or message?

What types of questions are on the exam?

There are lots of great resources on the types of questions that are found on the AP LITERATURE exam.

For example, here is a great site on meter: https://literarydevices.net/meter/

Here is a review on rhyme scheme to help you understand how to analyze poetry: https://literarydevices.net/rhyme-scheme/#:~:text=Rhyme%20scheme%20is%20the%20pattern,written%20in%20free%20verse%20style.

Check out sites on DICTION and SYNTAX, such as https://literarydevices.net/polysyndeton/ on Polysyndeton vs. Asyndeton .

What about literary movements to help you understand the works (and write the essays) ? https://lithub.com/your-pocket-guide-to-10-literary-movements/ and https://www.studysmarter.de/en/explanations/english-literature/literary-movements/

Though these question types are discussed through our various lessons throughout the year, one of the best online articles that I found on the types of questions noted below is at https://blog.prepscholar.com/ap-literature-exam .

The site succinctly reviews the types of questions, shows examples of the questions, and, most importantly, explains how to work with the questions. I love this website and so will you!

So, make sure that you know how to handle the following types of questions on the AP LITERATURE examination:

READING COMPREHENSION questions
INFERENCE questions
IDENTIFYING AND INTERPRETING FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE questions
LITERARY TECHNIQUES questions
CHARACTER ANALYSIS questions
OVERALL PASSAGE questions
STRUCTURE questions
GRAMMAR questions

What content and terms should I know? THAT is a big question.

There are LOTS of places to learn literary terms, besides just in the classroom. Two of the BEST are Literarydevices.net and Americanrhetoric.com .

Ehrlich - 12AP.EXAM PROSE REVIEW

Ehrlich - 12AP.EXAM POETRY REVIEW

Ehrlich - 12AP.EXAM DRAMA REVIEW

Where is the best place to review literary terms, rhetorical techniques, types of poetry, and more?

Click here for more information.

You can go on-line and find great resources like Quizlets. Here is one on TYPES OF POETRY.

Click https://quizlet.com/10767614/ap-lit-on-poetry-1-types-of-poems-flash-cards/

Click here for some amazing QUIZLETS at Fiveable.me

You can also make your own QUIZLETS and FLASHCARDS. The process of making them is amazing for your memory.

Feel free to email me good links to Quizlets, websites, etc. so I may add them here to share with others: richard.ehrlich@palmbeachschools.org

Do we lose points on the AP Literature examination when we SKIP a question or get a question incorrect?

No, you do not LOSE any points for missed questions. But, you also do not GAIN any points for them either.

So, it is VERY important that you answer EVERY question. Make sure to note skipped questions and to return to them, if you have time.

An educated guess on a question is better than no guess on a question.

What are some of the things that students need to KNOW or need to AVOID when writing AP LITERATURE ESSAYS?

NOTE: I have scoured through the online writings of AP READERS and here are some of their noted comments.

One of my favorites was Meredith (founder and creator of TeachWriting.org and Bespoke ELA). You may want to review their words carefully as THEY are SCORING YOUR ESSAYS.

At the risk of plagiarizing (NOTE: DO NOT PLAGIARIZE ANY PART OF YOUR ESSAYS OR FREE RESPONSE RESPONSES)...

Click on the numbers below for more information.

Know the difference between a simile and a metaphor. Such basic skills are expected and do change the scores when used improperly.

Know one form of point of view from another (i.e. omniscient, limited omniscient, unreliable first person, etc.).

AVOID USE OF...

Engfish (over-the-top language)

Nominalizations ("often larger words that have suffixes and prefixes tagged on to sound more academic (i.e. antidisestablishmentarianism")).

PURPLE PROSE (overly ornate or sentimental language).

When referring to the passage, use the word "excerpt" or, better, the word "passage".

Do not confuse "excerpt" with "expert" or "except" or any other word than "excerpt". Again, perhaps just use the word "passage" or, much better, ALWAYS quote and paraphrase from the passage.

Do not just ask the reader to remember or to refer to the passage. GIVE THEM SOMETHING TO WORK WITH.

Let the WORK SPEAK by USING THE WORK!

What types of prompts are on the AP Literature examination?

As noted earlier, students write essays that respond to three free-response prompts from the following categories:

A literary analysis of a given poem
A literary analysis of a given passage of prose fiction (this may include drama)
An analysis that examines a specific concept, issue, or element in a work of literary merit selected by the student.

In other word, make sure you know how to complete passage analysis (essays 1 and 2) and a thematic analysis (#3).

Again,the actual prompt types are discussed through our various lessons throughout the year, but this is one of the best online articles that I found on the types of questions that will be on the exam is at https://blog.prepscholar.com/ap-literature-exam .

Advice on writing the defensible thesis?

As we discuss in class, the thesis gets it own row or point on the College Board AP Literature examination essay rubric. It is not hard to get this points as long as you write a thesis is a defensible claim about an interpretation of literature and that may establish a line of reasoning.

Remember that a defensible thesis can be more than one sentence. But, it should a nuanced sentence or two that is impressive to the reader. It should not just parrot the prompt. It must show an ORIGINAL argument that sets up what the rest of essay.

You must make SURE that the thesis statement does not make an implied message. It is an interpretation of a message.
You must specifically and directly tell a statement of significance that answers the prompt.
The thesis is really about showing an INSIGHT into the theme or message of a literary text.

HINT: If the thesis is something that can be disputed or argued by someone else, you are doing it right!

This is the time to setup the future sparkles to your essay!

Check out this great video on the DEFENSIBLE THESIS: https://youtu.be/TUb4Zq6cqN0?t=648 . NOTE: This link starts you at 10m 48s into the video to focus on the defensible thesis.

How do you use ARTISTIC UNITY and ORGANIC unity to defend your defensible thesis?

What is the difference between organic unity and artistic unity?

As we discuss in class, a writer of analysis wants to focus on at least two different aspects of UNITY to help you DEFEND your DEFENSIBLE thesis.

Consider the ORGANIC UNITY as you answer the prompt. What is the progression of the characters and the story? How do the characters EVOLVE? How does the story move from ONE point to another?

ARTISTIC UNITY (which is even MORE important): How do the elements of the story contribute to the message or meaning of the work? It is not that a story has irony or symbolism or characterization but HOW does the author use these elements?

The thesis is really about showing an INSIGHT into the theme or message of a literary text. Artistic unity and organic unity help us see the insights!

NOTE: Here is link to a great article on TONE that WILL prove useful to you. This is ONE of many files that I share during the year to HELP you HELP you do well on the examination: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IaC2JDWZ_tnbxg-e5ehOCUbpZgRbG1g0/view?usp=sharing

What does the College Board mean by "sophistication"? Use of outside sources and allusions?

One of the biggest issues made, especially with the release of the now not-so-new AP LITERATURE essay rubric, is the idea of sophistication or the use of intertextuality. How to best connect bigger ideas to the works?

Sophistication is NOT just adding allusions to other works. It is actually about getting past the prompt.

Strong essays answer the prompt but SOPHISTICATED essays make insights the are revealed in the READING of the text. The prompt is only the wick of the firecracker. The sparkles come from points of discussion of the text.

PROMPT + UNITIES (artistic, organic) = Sophistication

For example, when the AP prompt lists terms or elements to address, such as point of view or imagery, use them to drive the complex discussions of the work. The defensible thesis is only the reveal of what the essay will prove.

Think of about this...

Sophistication in a Literary Essay

By Richard Ehrlich (that guy teaching you this class)

Do you know what Orwellian means? This is not a class in Orwellian thinking. It is a class to get you to DEMONSTRATE DEPTH in your thinking.

To question. To search for Truth with a capital T in life through the study of literature.

The SOPHISTICATION point for the AP LITERATURE essays is about that, too.

For example, SOPHISTICATION in Kincaid's contemporary novel Lucy examines such things as the sun in this novel. In the passage provided in class, the sun shines but not just in the sky but on Truth. A TRUTH for Lucy, and for anyone thinking that the grass is greener or the sun is brighter on the other side of the proverbial fence. NOTE: Underline Novel and Drama titles. Quote "Poetry" and "Short Story" titles.

Why does Kincaid describe the sun so differently when describing Lucy’s ancestral HOME? Her current place to live MAY HOUSE her but is it her HOME? Why does where she lives now leave her so cold, even in the literal AND metaphorical context within the work? NOTE: Write in present tense when describing literature.

For example, SOPHISTICATION in Wilbur's contemporary poem "The Barred Owl" is in how the parents "domesticate" the fear of the child. Are the parents teaching a lesson or just attempting to get the child back to sleep? To "domesticate" a fear? Address that line. It is VERY important.

Also, why is the poem title "The Barred Owl"? Why BARRED? What does it mean TO BAR (verb)? An action, not a noun (no alcohol bars or soda bars in this situation, of course 😉).

Most importantly, perhaps, is the SOPHISTICATION of Collins's contemporary poem "History Teacher". Collins's teacher has a lesson to teach, and it goes far beyond the lesson of that day. What would be the RESULT for the children when a history teacher--a trusted authority, to them at least, on HISTORY--obscures or DENIES a truth or fact. Is the teacher a denier of facts? A creator of a false narrative? Dare I say... an originator in the world of future fake news? Is that the lesson?

Think: Is the lesson of Collins's "History Teacher" allowing the children to remain in innocence despite their torment of the weak and the smart, OR are we getting into Orwellian territory? Is the violence on the playground related to the real lesson? Collins put that in for YOU to consider.

Look up Orwellian, perhaps? USE Orwellian and, now, THAT would be an element of SOPHISTICATION in a literary essay.

Watch this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oe64p-QzhNE

When students “put energy into thinking through what they want to say about a literary text, then they have become literary critics.”

- APLITHELP.COM

Would highly recommend you read Thomas C. Foster's HOW TO READ LITERATURE LIKE A PROFESSOR and to read this BLOG: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/reaching-literary-analysis-rusul-alrubail

Should you make allusions to OTHER literary works in your essays?

In the past, it seemed like the College Board wanted students to make ANY connection, perhaps, to literary works in their essays. Now, not really.

If you CAN make a STRONG connection from your essay topic or chosen literary work to another literary work, do it. Make the connection CLEAR and EVIDENT. EXPLAIN the connection well.

If you CAN NOT make a STRONG connection from your essay topic or chosen literary work to another literary work, do NOT do it. The days of making the, perhaps, cursory connection to works is long gone.

The College Board wants you to PROVE you know a work(s) well. Show a depth to your thoughts. Make points that make someone go... hmmm?

How many quotes should I use in my essays? Should I express my opinion? Click here.

As noted earlier, the College Board wants you to PROVE you know a work(s) well. SO, use as many SPECIFIC quotes from the work that help you do that. THIS IS the EVIDENCE (ROW B in the EXAM rubric) of the essay!

Also, show a depth to your thoughts. Make points that make someone go... hmmm? Your opinion is more about interpreting the evidence. This is the COMMENTARY on the EVIDENCE (again, ROW B).

Advice for writing conclusions?

APLITHELP.COM has a great teaching packet for developing a defensible thesis. It makes a point that is absolutely imperative that you understand: it is about the ROAD TRIP.

Point A is the DEFENSIBLE thesis.

Point B is the CONCLUSION.

How you get from POINT A to POINT B is the real JOURNEY. The journey IS the important part!

What DIRECTIONS you take to do this are guided by the elements noted (character, theme, point of view, details, imagery, etc.) but how you take that journey is up to you.

The essay MUST develop the argument and the meaning. Use the terms to help guide the message.

NOTE: If you find that time is running out (if the allotted nearly 40 minutes are up before you MUST move onto the next essay) and that you can not get to write a full conclusion, try to write a FINAL STATEMENT that reveals the INSIGHTS that your essay PROVED with EVIDENCE.

But, if you do not make it this far, do not panic!!!! Just do your BEST.

Should my AP ESSAYS be perfect?

The College Board Readers see this essay as a rough draft of sorts. They know that you ONLY 40 minutes to write the essay to do a lot.

Instead, focus on how to make the argument as powerful as possible without wasting too many words. Just do your best to PROVE a defensible point that answers the prompt and that has clear examples in the work to SUPPORT that defensible point.

Lapses in grammar or the like do NOT help an essay but they do necessarily ruin the essay. Still, try your best to fix errors whenever you can!

Click on the videos noted in each section to learn overviews, hints, etc.

Is there a shortcut or checklist to follow when examining and analyzing a piece of literature?

In class, we discuss DIDLS, TELS, STAR, TP-CASTT, and other acronyms. These acronyms are to help you KNOW what to examine.

DIDLS for PROSE

TP-CASTT for POETRY

Every tried SOAPSTONE?

There are lots of great ways to analyze literature. Unfortunately, there are really no shortcuts, only DEEP THOUGHTS.

Click here for other MNEMONIC DEVICES to help you with literary analysis. https://1osjhr1kzber15t9781hbik1-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/MnemonicsLitAnalysisAccessibleApril2019.pdf

What does a high-scoring essay require?

AP READERS state that… (read this carefully as these are the people that score your ap literature essays)

HIGH-RANGE ESSAY SCORE (5-6)

* Has a defensible thesis statement with a specific analysis or argument.

* Focuses on the text rather than expressing personal, unfounded judgements.

* Shows command over the evidence in their writing.

* ALL claims are supported by textual evidence.

* Imbeds, or blends, the evidence correctly.

* Uses specific textual evidence that clearly connects to each claim.

* Makes strong and clear allusions or connections to other texts.

* Addresses the complexity in the characters, themes, etc.

* Uses devices such as juxtaposition, contrast, diction, symbolism, repetition, etc. to analyze passages.

* Has clear control of the conventions of language (i.e. use of conjunctive adverbs, etc.).

* Avoids clichés, such as... right off the bat/ judge a book by its cover/ in the know /roll with the punches/ light at the end of the tunnel / fish out of water/ in a nutshell / cookie cutter, etc.

There are MANY great resources to help you write the BEST essays that you can. Here is a link to a great packet for writing literary analysis essays: https://www.bucks.edu/media/bcccmedialibrary/pdf/HOWTOWRITEALITERARYANALYSISESSAY_10.15.07_001.pdf

What could make an essay a low-scoring essay?

LOW-RANGE ESSAY SCORE (3 or below)

* Simply restates the prompt without any specific analysis or argument.

* Expresses personal judgements rather than focusing on the text.

* Makes allusions to other text but the connection is not clear. If you can not make a STRONG connection to another work, do not do it.

* Wastes words with judgements on the quality of the writer or the quality of the work (I.e. fantastic work, etc.)

* Simplistic commentary that often sticks on paraphrasing evidence and/or repeating the exact same commentary.

* Defines literary terms in the essay. NOTE: The people who score the essays DO NOT need to be told a definition.

* Simply drops quotes into the writing. NOTE: The quotes must have a purpose.

* Makes unsubstantiated claims (claim not supported by evidence).

* Uses evidence that is too general or does not clearly connect to each claim.

* Not connecting the claim to the argument, making it seem like a random observation

* Dropping in quotes and explaining them with one sentence that only skirts the surface.

* Does not address the complexity in the characters, themes, etc.

* Does not show control over using devices to analyze the passages.

* Lack of the understanding of the conventions of language (i.e. use of conjunctive adverbs, etc.).

* Students relying upon clichés to do the analysis for them, which does NOT work.

As noted earlier, there are MANY great resources to help you write the BEST essays that you can. Here is a link (showing it again if you did not click on the link the first time I showed it) to a great packet for writing literary analysis essays: https://www.bucks.edu/media/bcccmedialibrary/pdf/HOWTOWRITEALITERARYANALYSISESSAY_10.15.07_001.pdf

How Should you use inclusive language when discussing literature and literary characters?

This is a great question and one that has come up in my classes before. To be honest, this is a difficult question since any suggestions on the use of language can be powerful as well as, perhaps to a point, political; but, with respect, here are my thoughts.

Though I completely respect the use of inclusive language and gender neutral language, and try my best to keep this classroom a safe zone for inclusivity, I tend to THINK that you should respect the author's choices when referring to literature and to literary characters, too.

In other words, I would suggest that you use the language, pronouns, nouns, and names that the author uses when referring to literature or literary works.

Want to know an interesting fact on the use of gender-neutral pronouns? Click here.

According to Purdue University Online Writing Lab, the Oxford English Dictionary’s first citation for "a gender-neutral, indefinite they is from about 1375 from the romance of William of Palerne. The use of they as an indefinite pronoun which refers to people in general has been used even longer. They appears in 1382 in Wycliffe’s translation of the Bible." Purdue also noted that in Shakespeare' Much Ado about Nothing, there is a use of they in the line, “To strange sores, strangely they straine the cure”.

Terms to know?

This ENTIRE course is filled with literary terms. We practice analyzing with them nearly every class.

Just remember, NEVER define terms on the exam.

The AP READER is likely an EXPERT in his or her or their field and does NOT need need YOU to define a term for him or her or them.

But, here is a great list of terms you should know at https://blog.prepscholar.com/list-of-literary-devices-techniques . They also have examples of each term with the definitions.

Another great site to review terms is https://literarydevices.net/ . This is my FAVORITE site and many of my class examples come directly from this site. They provide wonderful examples and key ideas. Not sure about a question that I asked in class? Try this site today!

Click on the videos noted in each section to learn overviews, hints, etc.

What forms of poetry should we know?

There are many forms of poetry that are examined within the exam: sonnets (Shakespearean/English and Petrarchan/Italian), odes, ballads, lyrics, villanelles, sestinas, epigrams, elegies, etc. Even the limerick (a clean one, of course) is fair game!

WORTH REPEATING... What are the eleven or more types of poems that you should know? < Click here for info >.

From https://www.grammarly.com/blog/creative-writing/types-of-poetry/

11 types of poems to know

1 Acrostic

You might remember writing acrostic poems in elementary school. In an acrostic poem, the lines are arranged so the first letter in each line helps to spell out a word. Here’s an example:

Perfect tool for writing on the fly

Evolution from quills to fountains, ballpoints to rollerballs

No touchscreen or keyboard can replicate the satisfaction of writing by hand

2 Ballad

And through the drifts the snowy clifts

Did send a dismal sheen

Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken—

The ice was all between

An ABCB rhyme scheme refers to the order of the repeated sounds at the end of each line. Here’s a quick example:

A: I write every day

B: Someday, I’ll finish my book

C: But sometimes I get so immersed

B: That I forget to cook!

3 Elegy

Unlike our previous entries, there are no length or form rules for elegies. However, there is a content requirement: Elegies are about death.

“Dirge Without Music” by Edna St. Vincent Millay is a well-known elegy. Take a look at this excerpt:

I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.

So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:

Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Crowned

With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.

4 Epic

5 Free verse

“Autumn” by T.E. Hulme is example of a short free verse poem:

A touch of cold in the Autumn night—

I walked abroad,

And saw the ruddy moon lean over a hedge

Like a red-faced farmer.

I did not stop to speak, but nodded,

And round about were the wistful stars

With white faces like town children.

Free verse vs. blank verse

6 Ghazal

What will suffice for a true-love knot? Even the rain?

But he has bought grief’s lottery, bought even the rain.

“Our glosses / wanting in this world”—“Can you remember?”

Anyone!—“when we thought / the poets taught” even the rain?

7 Haiku

A haiku is a short poem characterized by its unique form: a five-syllable line followed by a seven-syllable line followed by a five-syllable line. These lines do not rhyme.

Take a look at this example by Matsuo Bashō:

An old silent pond . . .

A frog jumps into the pond,

splash! Silence again.

8 Limerick

Limericks are humorous, often tawdry poems that originated in the nineteenth century. As a form, limericks have specific rules:

Five lines
AABBA rhyme scheme
First two lines contain seven to ten syllables
Third and fourth lines contain five to seven syllables
Final line contains seven to ten syllables

Here’s an example of a famous limerick:

There once was a man from Nantucket

Who kept all his cash in a bucket.

But his daughter, named Nan,

Ran away with a man

And as for the bucket, Nantucket.

9 Ode

An ode is a poem that praises something or someone. Odes are not required to stick to any specific meter, rhyme scheme, or length—though they often use a formal tone.

Odes originated in ancient Greece, where they were performed with musical accompaniment. Today, they’re often written and recited in celebration of beloved individuals or organizations.

Here is an example of an ode by the Greek poet Pindar:

Creatures for a day! What is a man?

What is he not? A dream of a shadow

Is our mortal being. But when there comes to men

A gleam of splendor given of heaven

Then rests on them a light of glory

And blesséd are their days.

10 Sonnet

You might remember sonnets from English class. In fact, one thing you might remember is the two main types of sonnet: Shakespearean and Petrarchan.

Both are named for poets who not only made the form their own but also made it famous. Sonnets have roots in thirteenth century Italy. Both types of sonnet adhere to specific rules.

Shakespearean:

Three quatrains (four lines) and a couplet, which typically concludes the poem
ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG rhyme scheme

Petrarchan:

Two stanzas: one octave (eight lines) and one sestet (six lines)
The first eight lines present an argument or question
A volta, or “turn,” begins the sestet, which responds to the argument posed in the octave
ABBAABBA, CDCDCD/CDECDE rhyme scheme

Here is an example of a Petrarchan sonnet, “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she

With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

11 Villanelle

19 lines
Five tercets (five lines)
One quatrain
ABA, ABA, ABA, ABA, ABA, ABAA rhyme scheme
Line 1 repeats in lines 6, 12, and 18
Line 3 repeats in lines 9, 15, and 19

Sylvia Plath’s “Mad Girl’s Love Song” is a famous twentieth century villanelle:

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;

I lift my lids and all is born again.

(I think I made you up inside my head.)

The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,

And arbitrary blackness gallops in:

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed

And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.

(I think I made you up inside my head.)

God topples from the sky, hell’s fires fade:

Exit seraphim and Satan’s men:

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I fancied you’d return the way you said,

But I grow old and I forget your name.

(I think I made you up inside my head.)

I should have loved a thunderbird instead;

At least when spring comes they roar back again.

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

(I think I made you up inside my head.)

What should we know about literary movements?

Why should we know literary movements?

Knowing literary movements often will give you an immediate insight to the issues, themes, and favored tools of a literary period. For example, Metaphysical writers often used conceits and wits to explore the human condition.

Though the entire video is very informative, you may want to start watching around 5 minute 19 seconds.

Pay close attention to not only the lecture but also the MAIN FEATURES to look for as well as the NAMES of the WRITERS.

Click on EACH IMAGE below to learn about different literary time periods.

1945+/early 1970s to PRESENT: Contemporary

Reflects the rise of individualism and the voices of MANY individuals to express their own concerns, angst, ideas and issues as well as to connect to their past and to their futures.

AROUND WWII to 1960s VIETNAM ERA = POSTMODERNISM

Reflects the fracturing of the bonds between individuals.
Explores the rise of the countercultural movements of the BEAT GENERATION and the BEAT poets (i.e. Jack Kerouac, Allen GInsberg, Lucien Carr, Gary Snyder, etc.) and the view of disrupting the societal standards or views (i.e. Kurt Vonnegut, William S. Burroughs, Zadie Smith, etc.).
Explores the rise of the HIPPIES and the anti-war/peace and love movements and includes other movements such as the CONFESSIONAL poets who dared expose their inner turmoil (i.e. Adrienne Rich, Sylvia Plath, etc.)

EARLY 1900s to early 1940s = MODERNISM

Reflects the fracturing of societies and the view of organized religion as an illness;

Includes many movements within, including: the Harlem Renaissance (i.e. Langston Hughes, etc.), the Lost Generation (i.e. Ernest Hemingway, etc., the Vicious Circle/Algonquin group (Dorothy Parker, etc.), T.S. Eliot, James Joyce, Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, etc.).

1865 to 1900 = REALISM/Victorian literature

Reflects an attempt to capture the texture of everyday life (i.e Henrik Ibsen, Mark Twain, Kate Chopin, etc.).

Movement becomes NATURALISM when the writers turn much darker (I.e. Jack London, Stephen Crane, Franz Kafka, Leo Tolstoy, etc.).

LATE 1700s, EARLY 1800s to CIVIL WAR = ROMANTICISM

Reflects an attempt to gain spiritual understanding through natural elements (i.e Walt Whitman, John Keats, Byron, Percy Shelley, William Blake, Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, etc.).
Movement becomes GOTHIC ROMANTICISM when their views turned inward to the soul and, often, to the macabre (i.e. Mary Shelley, Edgar Allen Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, etc.).

MID-17th century = Metaphysical, ENLIGHTENMENT

Reflects an attempt to understand the individual human being through religion, logic, spirituality, psychology, use of the conceit, irony, and wit, etc. (i.e John Donne, Andrew Marvell, etc.).

14th to early 17th century = Renaissance

Reflects an attempt to understand the archetypal human being through Humanism, etc. (i.e William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Niccolo Machiavelli, etc.).

Of course, the AP LIT EXAM is not limited to these time periods.

Also, these are only general summaries from Mr. Ehrlich's head. Feel free to email me corrections or additions at richard.ehrlich@palmbeachschools.org

YOU should do a bit of your own research EACH of these movements and time periods. TIME TO LEARN.

Oscar Wilde: "Literature always anticipates life. It does not copy it but molds it to its purpose."

I can not stress enough the importance of ANNOTATING the selected readings (prose, poetry, drama, etc.) and the need to PLAN BEFORE you write your essays for the AP LIT EXAM.

Suggestions on ways to remind us on the many literary works that can show on the exam?

There is no magic formula to remember literary works. It is just that... to remember. OK, a little STUDYING or REVIEWING too of what you have read.

And, there is NO way that we could read enough works in this one year alone to give you everything that you need, especially for the THIRD essay or free response, which requires a thematic approach.

I supply a self-inventory of BOOKS that you should have read over the year AND go over a few works in depth in the course, such as HAMLET and FENCES.

The other works should be ones that you have READ, not just this year but over many years through your courses and for yourself.

But, try this page for ways to REMIND you of your readings of the past: https://sites.google.com/palmbeachschools.org/canyouguessthecharacters/home (this link will only open within Palm Beach county schools as it it using student projects we did in the classroom).

Click on the videos noted in each section to learn overviews, hints, etc.

What is meter?

Though we cover this in class, as well as how to determine one stanza from another by using rhyme scheme and meter, I found a great article that you might enjoy as well as an interesting and thorough TED talk: https://blog.prepscholar.com/iambic-pentameter-definition-examples

THIS VIDEO is one of the better videos that I have viewed on understanding meter.

NOTE: YouTube is FULL of great videos that may help you understand difficult concepts, like METER.

What is the difference between an enjambment and an end-stopped line? What about a caesura?

Like with most literary terms, the best way to learn is to STUDY and to PRACTICE.

Enjambments are poetic lines the move into other lines.

End-stopped lines are poetic lines that end the thought.

Check out the LESSONS (that are posted on our GOOGLE CLASSROOM) and review the resources (YouTube videos, websites, etc.).

Check out this website: https://www.litcharts.com/literary-devices-and-terms/enjambment .

What do we need to know about metaphors? Metonymies? Synecdoche? Personifications? Dead metaphors? Controlling metaphors? Extended metaphors? Mixed metaphors?

Understanding metaphors is the lifeblood of literary analysis. Like with symbolism and irony and with so many literary elements, metaphor requires argument. It requires interpretation. It requires taking a stand.

Controlling metaphor vs. Extended Metaphor?

Of all the types of metaphor, controlling metaphors are the engine that drives them.

The controlling metaphor provides the CONCEPTION or CONCEPT that is brought to life to better understand the subject or precept. For example, the subject may be "death" but the metaphor may be the "long sleep" (a metonymy) . The metaphor provides an understanding or comparison that is often easier--or so we hope-- to understand.

You MUST be able to identify the metaphor of the work, especially in poetry, that is the MAIN metaphor (controlling metaphor) that is reinforced or elaborated upon using the other metaphors (extended metaphors).

For example, Langston Hughes (reminder: always mention writers by their FIRST AND LAST NAMES, never the first name alone) uses the line "Life for me ain't no crystal stair" as the controlling metaphor but the extended metaphors reinforce the idea through the tacks on the floor, no carpet, no light, etc.

In other words, life is not easy but we must overcome the obstacles and KEEP CLIMBING the stairs DESPITE the discomforts or problems.

Metonymy

Synecdoche

Types of Metaphors

What do we need to know about characterization? Direct vs. indirect?

What are the types of characters?

REMINDER: Timing for the exam is an issue for many. Just do your best. THEY KNOW that your essays are drafts. Just keep in mind that the multiple choice-section questions should take about one minute each. The essays should take about thirty-five minutes each. Annotating as you read and planning before you start helps a lot.

REMINDER: This is about the demonstrating the ability to make substantiated arguments AND interpretations!

The ability to compare ideas, concepts, etc.

The use and function of characterization

The use of and function of plot and structure

The use of and function of point of view / speaker / narrative

The use of and function of setting

Check out the MANY videos on AP DAILY (as well as all over YouTube... though some videos are clearly better than others) to both learn and to review skills needed for the AP LITERATURE EXAMINATION.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlP7bvSKNRk

The use of and function of symbolism

The use of and function of diction

The use of and function of syntax

AP readers often strongly dislike when a student writes "the reader" in the essay or any variation of that.

You NEED to TRUST yourself.

In May 2020, Inaugural Presidential Poet Richard Blanco was part of an AP ENGLISH LITERATURE lesson posted by the College Board on YouTube. In this course, Blanco told the students that they NEED to TRUST themselves.

After all, you put in all the work.

That piece of advice not enough? Read this: https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/courses/resources/exam-readers-advice-writing

Also, check out http://www.aplithelp.com/advice-readers-2019/

ONLINE Resources to Help You Prepare for the Exam:

ONE OF MY FAVORITES: FIVEABLE: Explains test, provides a great "cram" sheet, etc. https://fiveable.me/ap-lit/exam-skills/2021-ap-english-literature-exam-guide/blog/x0Yotc1vkxkOfDfUv8CG
The College Board: They designed the test and have lots of great videos, lessons, etc. https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/courses/ap-english-literature-and-composition/exam
Prep Scholar: Has an a great overview of the exam. https://blog.prepscholar.com/ap-literature-exam
CrackAP: Practice multiple choice questions and it will explain the answers. http://www.crackap.com/ap/english-literature-and-composition/

Three AP Literature Practice tests online https://www.highschooltestprep.com/ap/english-literature/

Shmoop: Has an overview of the exam and practice materials. https://www.shmoop.com/ap-english-literature/

Please email me at richard.ehrlich@palmbeachschools.org if you find OTHER good online resources to help people prepare for the AP EXAM.

Oscar Wilde: "Literature always anticipates life. It does not copy it but molds it to its purpose."

I can not stress enough the importance of ANNOTATING the selected readings (prose, poetry, drama, etc.) and the need to PLAN BEFORE you write your essays for the AP LIT EXAM.

How long should you spend per essay / free response question?

You should spend no more than forty minutes per essay / free response question.

Again, any longer would be using up too much time. You MUST complete ALL THREE essays or FREE RESPONSE questions.

REMINDER:

Focus on the analysis of literary elements and techniques rather than the rhetorical analysis.
A rhetorical analysis was the focus of AP LANGUAGE, not AP LITERATURE.

Here are some ACTUAL prompts found on the AP LITERATURE EXAM.

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