Gujarat Board GSEB Class 12 English Textbook Solutions Reading Comprehension Paraphrasing a Poem Questions and Answers, Notes Pdf.

GSEB Class 12 English Reading Comprehension Paraphrasing a Poem

A poem is a type of writing that express the author’s ideas or feeling with a magnifying effect. It usually has some hidden meanings, and sometimes it can be hard to understand it the first time you read it. Now, if you have to paraphrase poem you will need to follow certain rules-they will help you save tons of time and ensure the poem has been properly paraphrased.

To help you with your rephrase task, we have written a useful guide for you so that you can rewrite a poem correctly. Take note of these tips :

• As a golden rule, make sure you have read the poem several times as this will help you understand the poem completely and locate the main topic.
• After you have read it many times, you can break the poems by lines or by paragraphs, it is up to you.
• Depending on the poem, it may be easy to paraphrase it line by line. But this will depend on how it is written.
• Locate what the main points are in the poem, and try to rephrase them using plain language. You will have to write them as if you were telling them to someone else, but make sure you keep the meaning of the poem. You cannot change its message.
• Once you have finished paraphrasing the poem, you should proofread your text. Scan it quickly looking for punctuation, grammar, spelling, and stylistic mistakes. If you find one, fix it and keep reading it.
• After you proofread your paper, read it again and see if it needs some editing or if it is ready for printing.
• You can make these two last points by reading your paper out loud. It will help you identify any mistakes easier.

When you paraphrase a poem, use your own words to explain the major ideas line-by-line. Paraphrasing isn’t the same as explicating or analyzing a poem. The goal is to rephrase the ideas in your own words without evaluating or addressing the author’s hidden messages or underlying themes. A paraphrased poem is a literal translation in regular prose without rhyme or meter.

Specimens of Paraphrasing a Poem
Paraphrase the following poems:

Poem 1: Dark Sister

I am the darker sister.
They send me to eat in our kitchen Company comes, But I laugh,
And just eat well,
And grow strong.

Paraphrase:
I am like you and we are not different. I can also eat at the table with different people. My darker complexion makes me beautiful than everybody else.

Poem 2: ‘All Things Can Tempt Me’ – W. B. Yeats

All things can tempt me from this craft of verse :
One time it was a woman’s face, or worse – The seeming needs of my fool-driven land; Now nothing but comes readier to the hand Them this accustomed toil…

Paraphrase:
Anything can distract me from writing poetry. Once I was distracted by a woman’s face, but I was even more distracted by the requirements of my country which is governed by idiots. At this point in my life, I find any task easier, than the work, I’m used to doing.

Poem 3: ‘Phenomenal Woman’ (Lines 1-29) – Maya Angelou

“Pretty women wonder where my secret lies. I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I’m telling lies.
I say,
It’s in the reach of my arms The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I’m a woman Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
I walk into a room Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It’s the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I’m a woman Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.”

Paraphrase:
The beautiful women cannot figure out why I am attractive. I am not beautiful and I do not have the body of a model. However, when I explain them my secret, they think I am being dishonest and that I am not telling the truth. I tell them that my secret lies in what I can reach, the way I move, the way I walk, and how I move my lips. I am an extraordinary woman, that’s who I am. When I walk into a room, as people want me to, some men stand up while others praise me with admiration. They all gather around me as the bees do with honey. And I explain that my secret is the light in my eyes, my shiny teeth, how I move my waist and how I walk. I am an extraordinary woman, that’s who I am.

Poem 4; ‘The Secret Heart’

“Across the years he could recall His father one way best of all.”
“In the stillest hour of night The boy awakened to a light.”
“Half in dreams, he saw his sire With his great hands full of fire.”
“The man had struck a match to see If his son slept peacefully.”

Paraphrase:
As the boy got older, he kept one image of his beloved father. One night, the boy was suddenly woken up by a source of light. He was partly awake and he saw an image which looked like his father holding fire ablaze. However, it was just because he did lit a match in order to look at him. The way he held the match shows that the resulting light represents love against the dim. While the curve of his hands look like heart. So the boy felt that his dad showed his part. And the love was simply powerful to start. On the face of his dad, there was intense love, and it was best seen when he was half awake while looking above. It did last for a moment only, but the son knew that forever it will be in his memory.

Poem 5: A Bird Came Down the Walk -Emily Dickinson

A bird came down the walk:
He did not know I saw;
He bit an angle-Worm in halves And ate the fellow, raw.
And then he drank a dew From a convenient grass,
And then hopped sidewise to the wall To let a beetle pass.
He glanced with rapid eyes That hurried all abroad,
They looked like frightened beads, I thought; He stirred his velvet head Like one in danger; cautious,
I offered him a crumb,
And he unrolled his feathers And rowed him softer home Than oars divide the ocean,
Too silver for a seam,
Or butterflies, off banks of noon,
Leap, plashless, as they swim.

Paraphrase:
The narrator chances to see a bird walking along a pathway, but just as the scene appears perfect, the bird seizes upon a worm, bites it into two, and devours it. The bird drinks some dew on nearby grass (note the alternate for a drinking ‘glass’), then graciously steps aside, right to a wall, to allow a beetle to pass. The bird, like one fearful of being caught in an unacceptable action, glances around quickly with darting eyes.

‘Cautious’ describes both the demeanour of the bird and that of the observing narrator. Both feel threatened, the bird of the possible consequences of its savagery, the narrator because she is next on the bird’s path. She ‘offered him a crumb’, not because she admires the bird but out of fear and expediency. The bird, sensing that it has escaped any potentially harmful consequences for what it has done, struts a bit as ‘he unrolled his feathers’ and ‘rowed him softer home-’ Ironically, its walk is too casual, softer than oars dividing a seamless ocean or butterflies leaping into noon’s banks, all without a splash. Behind its soft, charming and gentle facade, nature is menacing and its hypocritical attempts to conceal its barbarism make it more frightening.

Poem 6: On Killing a Tree -Gieve Patel

It takes much time to kill a tree,
Not a simple jab of the knife Will do it. It has grown Slowly consuming the earth,
Rising out of it, feeding Upon its crust, absorbing Years of sunlight, air, water,
And out of its leprous hide Sprouting leaves.
So hack and chop
But this alone won’t do it.
Not so much pain will do it.
The bleeding bark will heal And from close to the ground ’ Will rise curled green twigs,
Miniature boughs
Which if unchecked will expand again To former size.
No,
The root is to be pulled out Out of the anchoring earth;
It is to be roped, tied,
And pulled out-snapped out Or pulled out entirely,
Out. from the earth-cave,
And the strength of the tree exposed,
The source, white and wet,
The most sensitive, hidden For years inside the earth.
Then the matter Of scorching and choking In sun and air,
Browning, hardening,
Twisting, withering,
And then it is done.

Paraphrase:
Give Patel’s ‘On Killing a Tree’ is a sarcastic poem about man’s indiscriminate destruction of trees. The tree is presented as an enemy to man. Man is presented as a professional killer who thinks of all possible ways to torture the tree. The poem begins ironically, describing the crime committed by the tree. For years it has consumed the earth’s crust. Like a thief, it has absorbed sunlight, air and water and has grown up like a giant.

So the tree must be killed. But it is not an easy task. A simple jab of the knife will not do it. From close to the ground it will rise up again and grow to its former size. It will again become a threat to man. So the tree should be tied with a rope and pulled out entirely. Its white, bleeding root should be exposed. Then it should be browned and hardened and twisted and withered and it is done.

The poem gives a realistic picture of man’s attitude towards trees. The tree is his greatest friend. But man is so foolish that he doesn’t realize the fact that he is cutting his own throat’ when he cuts a tree.

Poem 7:I Will Meet You Yet Again

I will meet you yet again How and where? I know not.
Perhaps I will become a figment of your imagination and maybe, spreading myself in a mysterious line on your canvas,
I will keep staring at you.
Perhaps I will become a ray of sunshine, to be embraced by your colours.
I will paint myself on your canvas I know not how and where ’ but I will meet you for sure.
Maybe I will turn into a spring, and rub the foaming ’ drops of water on your body, and rest my coolness on your burning chest.
I know nothing else
but that this life
will walk along with me.
When the body perishes, all perishes;
but the threads of memory are woven with enduring specks.
I will pick these particles
weave the threads,
and I will meet you yet again.

Paraphrase:
The poem ‘I Will Meet You Yet Again’ is translated from Punjabi by Nirupama Dutt. The original tide of this poem in Punjabi is ‘Main Tenu Phir Milangi’. This poem was written by the poet on her deathbed. This poem is well-acclaimed and reveals the poet’s exquisite love that promises to meet again (Perhaps in some different form) She says, “I don’t know how and where I will meet you again”.

She describes different forms of meeting: She will be his (her husband Imroz was a painter) imagination and spread out on his canvas. She may be a ray of sun and keep staring at .him seeking embrace of his colours. She will meet him surely in any form. She may turn into a spring and rub the foaming drops of water on his body and allow her coolness on his burning chest. She knows ‘When the body perishes, all perishes, but memories never get decayed. She will pick up the specks of memories, weave the threads and meet him yet again.