Gujarat Board GSEB Class 11 English Textbook Solutions Reading Comprehension Paraphrasing a Poem Questions and Answers, Notes Pdf.

GSEB Class 11 English Reading Comprehension Paraphrasing a Poem

When we paraphrase a poem, we use our 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 our 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.

Here are some steps to explain how a poem can be paraphrased :
Create a Literal Translation:
Read the entire poem once or twice to get a broad understanding of the storyline, characters and setting. Then, break the poem down word-by-word, phrase-by-phrase or line-by-line to paraphrase. Read a line or a stanza, look away from the poem and think about what the author is literally saying. Translate the words by restating them in a new way, using common, everyday language, suggests Kip Wheeler, English professor at Carson-Newman University in Tennessee.

Use language that you might use when talking to a teacher or an adult. Avoid slang and cliches and focus on the literal meaning of the words.

Avoid Replacing Words with Synonyms:
Don’t just replace all the important words with synonyms, according to Williams College in Massachusetts. You might use synonyms occasionally to identify important terms, but exchanging the author’s original words for synonyms isn’t paraphrasing. Consider ways to rearrange the words and substitute your own words to get across the same meaning.

For example, Edgar Allan Poe writes, “Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December, And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor,” in his poem “The Raven.”. An effective paraphrase might state, “It’s a cold December night, and the trees outside my window are barren.

The moon casts shadows of the bare tree branches onto my bedroom floor, and the shadows resemble ghosts.” The poem is about a man who expresses his sadness about the death of his lover as a raven pecks ominously at his window. Poe wants readers to associate death with the haunting coldness of winter.

Expand the Text with Details
Expand the lines and stanzas in the poem by using full sentences to explain the poet’s ideas, recommends Seamus Cooney, English professor at Western Michigan University. Poets often condense their ideas to make them fit within the meter and rhythm of the poem.

When you paraphrase, fill in pieces that the author hints at but doesn’t fully explain in detail. For example, in Emily Dickinson’s poem “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” she says, “Because I Could Not Stop for Death, he kindly stopped for me.” A paraphrased version might say, “I realize that death is a natural part of life, and I can’t delay or stop its inevitability. Fortunately, death is a polite, respectable force that doesn’t treat me unfairly.” Dickinson wants readers to feel comfortable with death, without fearing it, and realize that it’s a normal part of human existence.

Use the Same Point of View:
Maintain the same point of view as the poet. Your paraphrase should parallel the poet’s voice, tone and overall mood. For example, when paraphrasing, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both…” by Robert Frost in “The Road Not Taken”, you might say, “I had a hard time choosing between two paths in the colourful autumn forest. I wish I could have taken both routes to see where they’d take me.”
Frost wants readers to understand that life presents choices, and at any given time, you’ll have to choose which path to take. In this example, you should maintain the first-person point of view throughout your entire paraphrase.

Guidelines for Paraphrasing:
How do you paraphrase a source?

• Read the original two or three times or until you are sure you understand it.
• Put the original aside and try to write the main ideas in your own words. Say what the source says, but no more, and try to reproduce the source’s order of ideas and emphasis.
• Look closely at unfamiliar words, observing carefully the exact sense in which the writer uses the words.
• Check your paraphrase, as often as needed, against the original for accurate tone and meaning, changing any words or phrases that match the original too closely. If the wording of the paraphrase is too close to the wording of the original,’ then it is plagiarism.
• Include a citation for the source of the information (including the page numbers) so that you can cite the source accurately. Even when you paraphrase, you must still give credit to the original author.

Examples:
Paraphrasing can be done with individual sentences or entire paragraphs. Here are some examples.
→ Original sentence:
Her life spanned years of incredible change for women.

Paraphrased sentence:
Mary lived through an era of liberating reform for women.

→ Original sentence:
Giraffes like Acacia leaves and hay, and they can consume 75 pounds of food a day.

Paraphrased sentence:
A giraffe can eat up to 75 pounds of Acacia leaves and hay every day.

Specimens of Paraphrasing a
Poem 1: ‘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.”
Answer:
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 got up.

He was party 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 2: ‘Not marble, nor the gilded monuments’ -William Shakespeare

Not marble, nor the gilded monuments Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme; But you shall shine more bright in these contents Than unswept stone besmeared with sluttish time. When wasteful war shall statues overturn, And broils root out the work of masonry, Nor Mars his sword nor war’s quick fire shall burn The living record of your memory.
‘Gainst death and all-oblivious enmity Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room
Even in the eyes of all posterity
That wear this world out to the ending doom.
So, till the judgment that yourself arise.
You live in this and dwell in lovers’ eyes.
Answer:
Not marble, nor the gold-plated shrines Of princes shall outlive the power of poetry; You shall shine more bright in these verses Than on dust-covered gravestones, ravaged by time.
When devastating war shall overturn statues, And conflicts destroy the mason’s handiwork, the cause of war (Mars) nor the effects of war (fire) shall destroy
The living record of your memory (this poem). Against death and destruction, which render people forgotten,
Shall you push onward; praise of you will always find a place, Even in the eyes of future generations That survive until the end of humanity. So, until you arise on Judgment Day, You are immortalized in this poetry, continue to live in lovers’ eyes.

Poem 3: ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of
May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimmed, And every fair from fair sometime declines. By chance, or nature’s changing course. untrimmed;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; Nor shall Death brag thou wander’s In his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see.
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.
Answer:
Shall I compare you to a summer’s day?
You are more lovely and more constant:
Rough winds shake the beloved buds of May And summer Is far too short: At times the sun is too hot. Or often goes behind the clouds;
And everything beautiful sometimes will lose Its beauty
By misfortune or by nature’s planned out course.
But your youth shall not fade, Nor will you lose the beauty that you possess:
Nor will death claim you for his own.
Because In my eternal verse you will live forever.
So long as there are people on this earth, So long will this poem live on, making you Immortal.