Download Poetry Précis

Poetry Précis
Definition: 1) A concise summary of essential points,
statements,or facts 2) a summary.
Singular: précis = pray-SEE or PRAY-see
Plural: précis = pray-SEEZ
Key components for a poem précis:
1) author
2) Title (in quotation marks unless epic)
3) theme
4) key defining element(s) of poem
(possibly including specific poetic devices, tone, detail,
imagery, diction, structure, allusion, figurative
language)
Tuesday, December 6, 11
“Metaphor”
In “Metaphor” Sylvia Plath utilizes symbolic poetic structure
combined with an enigmatic series of metaphors to capture the
emotional struggles with uncertainty and change that may accompany
the state of pregnancy.
“In Plaster”
Sylvia Plath’s “In Plaster” invites the intermingling of the literal and
figurative—the literal description of being in a plaster cast versus the
figurative levels ranging from self-doubt to psychological duality—to
reveal the survivor’s message of enduring and ultimately overcoming
conflict through self-transformation.
Tuesday, December 6, 11
Bright Star, Would I Were Steadfast as Thou Art
In “Bright Star, Would I Were Steadfast as Thou Art” Keats uses
sonnet form and formal language to share life’s unrelenting
quests that challenge unique individuals to observe and treasure
every breathing moment with a loved one because without a zest
for life and steadfast, unconditional love there is death without
dying. (why is this icky?)
Choose Something Like a Star
Robert Frost’s poem “Choose Something Like a Star” utilizes
informal language to illuminate thought by attaching integrity
to the mysteries of individual uniqueness which is rooted in self
knowledge that is consistent in the face of adversity. (and icky?)
Tuesday, December 6, 11
In “My Papa’s Waltz” Theodore Roethke
displays the view of a young boy who is
roughed up by his father through drum-like
syllabic emphasis and negative diction.
or
In “My Papa’s Waltz,” poet Theodore Roethke
expresses a small child’s endurance with his
drunken father through rhyming couplets and
contrasting diction, recounting the pain and
anguish in a broken home where daily life is
defined by surviving an overworked father’s
“rough” play.
Tuesday, December 6, 11