How to Do Summaries of a Poem

Analyzing a poem takes time.

Poems can be straightforward and simple, but often they use figurative language and are complex. If you want to summarize a poem, you must take it apart line by line and rewrite it in a paragraph form that communicates your understanding of its meaning.

Things You'll Need

• Poem
• Quiet area
• Thesaurus
• Dictionary

Instructions

1. Sit in a quiet area to read the poem a few times. While reading, write down any meaning you find, no matter how obscure it seems. The meanings can be weeded out later as you arrive at an analysis that makes sense to you.

2. Rephrase any sentences you find confusing or unclear. Use a thesaurus to replace confusing words with ones that make sense in the context and use a dictionary to discover meanings for unfamiliar words.

3. Translate figurative language into literal statements. Because this requires some effort to read the poet's mind, this part of the summary is the most difficult. You may need information about the author and the time in which he lived. For example, when summarizing the poetry of Oscar Wilde, a basic understanding of Victorian politics will help with the analysis. Wilde wrote about politics, but he disguised his political views within his poetry with figurative language.

4. Write a summary of the poem, section by section or line by line, in paragraph form. The summary is not a rewrite of the poem, but an analysis of its meaning. You will need to present samples from the poem to document the conclusions you make.

Tips & Warnings

• When a reader walks away from a summary, he expects to know what the poem is about in simple, modern language.

References

• University of North Carolina: Understanding and Explicating Poetry
• Poet Seers: Oscar Wilde