REFRAIN:
A refrain is a repeated part of a poem, particularly when it comes either at
the end of a stanza or between two stanzas. Example: "I wake to
sleep": Literally, this means, I
wake in the morning only to have to sleep again at night. Symbolically it
means, I am born to die--death is the inevitable concomitant of life.
How to
Paraphrase a Poem. First, ask yourself, is it better if I simply directly
quote a few lines from the poem instead of paraphrasing them? If the message of
the poem is best expressed by the original words, it is recommended that you
directly quote them instead. This will help retain the strength of the message
in the poem. However, if your answer to that question is "no", then
read on and learn to paraphrase that poem.
Before you can even attempt to paraphrase a few
lines from a poem, make sure that you are already familiar with the poem's
message. Otherwise, you have to read the poem again and get a good idea of the
message it is trying to give you.
After making sure that you already know the
poem's message, close your copy of the poem and try reciting it using your own
words. Imagine the poem's message in your head. This way, you'll be able to
have a few words of your own. This is the initial step to effectively
paraphrasing the poem.
Next, grab a pen and a piece of paper (or open
your word editing software such as MSWord) and rewrite the thoughts that you
had in imagining the poem's message. Make sure that you're not taking a peek at
the copy of your poem so that what you'll be writing is independent from the
poem's original text.
Now, what you have just written down is you may
refer to as the "draft" of your poem's paraphrase. The next step is
to take a good look at the original text of the poem and see if there are any
words that you have written down which aren't exactly referring back to the
message of the poem. Edit your initial paraphrase in terms of its sentence
structure and message.
Here is an example on how to paraphrase a poem:
I, Too, Sing
America by Langston Hughes
I, too, sing
America.
I am the darker
brother.
They send me to
eat in the kitchen
When company
comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I'll be at the
table
When company
comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Eat in the
kitchen,"
Then.
Besides,
They'll see how
beautiful I am
And be ashamed--
I, too, am
America.
[Paraphrase text]
Although the color of my skin may be different
than yours, I am also like the rest of my fellowmen and you. And because we are
not any different, I can also eat at the table with the company of other
people. My darker complexion makes me no less beautiful than everybody else,
which should make them feel sorry for treating me like less than the average
individual. I am also like the rest of you.
