In my course of English as a foreign language, we have to summarise a poem. What I have been unable to understand is how well to summarise a poem. I consulted grammar books but they carried explanation on summarising prose. I need tips to summarise a poem. Should reference of the poet be given in the summary or a good summary means finding the underlying meaning of the poem. Should a summary be short or lengthy.

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2000

Answers

Shahid,

Go to the following sites and they should be helpful: http://www.stemnet.nf.ca/~hblake/poetryan.html http://www-english.tamu.edu/wcenter/handouts/poetry.html

The first site will probably be more helpful. If your teacher did not explain how to analyze poetry (or if you were absent when s/he did), then your best bet would be to focus on theme and meaning and steering clear of structure.

Good luck,

-- Anonymous, December 11, 2000