Question

Choose a stanza from any poem, including those in this lesson. Write a paraphrase of those lines. Then compare the original stanza with the paraphrase. What has changed in the transition from poetry to prose?

Answer 1

I don't know what the poems in the chapters are, but several things tend to change when you move between poetry and prose.

One is the loss of figurative language. When you summarize a poem into prose, the language tends to be more literal as you are explaining meaning instead of creating it.

Another is length. Very short poems in prose tend to be a bit longer, and very long poems, when summarized in prose tend to be shorter.

Another change is rhythm...poems that have rhythm or rhyme patterns lose that element in a summary of prose.

These are all examples of things you might find that change when you're summarizing a poem.

Answer 2

Answer:

Here is the second stanza of "The Sparrow":

So birds of peace and hope and love

Come fluttering earthward from above,

To settle on life's window-sills,

And ease our load of earthly ills;

But we, in traffic's rush and din

Too deep engaged to let them in,

With deadened heart and sense plod on,

Nor know our loss till they are gone.

And here is a paraphrase of the stanza:

Peace, hope, and love are like birds that come fluttering down and sit upon our window sills. They try to draw our attention, but we ignore them because our lives are busy. We fail to notice that these elements are missing from our lives, but we regret that failure only when we realize that we have lost them.

The paraphrase does not have the same effect as the poem because it does not use the sound devices. It sounds like a flat statement of facts. However, the ideas gain clarity in the paraphrase.

Explanation:

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