How to Paraphrase Poems
Paraphrasing a poem doesn’t take that long at all once you’ve learned how to do it. Here are a few tips on how to make it in the right way:
- Familiarise yourself with the poetry – Before you attempt to change the wordings, make sure that you fully understand the poem’s message. Read it over and over until you’re familiar with it.
- Close the verse – Once you understand its core message, close the verse and recite it in your head. You won’t recite it word for word; instead, you’ll replace some of the words with your own.
- Grab a pen and paper – Jot down some thoughts that spring to mind when you think about the verse.
- Write down the first draft – Now, write down a first draft of the poetry, putting its message into your own words.
- Compare the two poetries – Open up the poetry and compare the two. If yours is too similar, make more changes in your poems paraphrase.
- Do a final edit – Your sentence structure may need some work. Use this time to tighten things up, and make sure everything flows.
Replacing words with the synonyms is both a skill and an art form. Essentially, when you paraphrase poems, you are retaining the original meaning but altering the words so that the rhyme is now yours as opposed to someone else’s.
Instead of copying a rhyme outright, you’re putting your own spin on things and speaking in your own voice. Writing help online also helps you to understand poetic techniques and improves your form and vocabulary.
The Purpose of It
If we’ve got an assignment due but the words and ideas simply won’t come, poem paraphrasing that already exists saves the day.
The purpose of paraphrasing poem is not to copy poetry outright, but to rearrange the words so that you’re writing in your own voice. You want to retain that core meaning, but you also want to make sure that your personality and character is coming across.
What and When to Do Such Assignment
All literature students have been there. With deadlines looming and poetries needing to be written, we’ve all burned the midnight oil trying to complete our verse.
But not all of us are gifted poets. When you’ve got to write a verse in just a few hours for class, it can be hard to come up with something original that is readable, flows beautifully and is basically awesome.
In such a situation, what do you do? You could continue slaving away trying to come up with original poetry – or you could reformulate verse by turning the words into your own while retaining the original meaning.
Rehashing poetry also helps to improve your form. If you’re struggling to come up with rhymes and rhythms, it’s a good idea to restructure the masters to get a better understanding of how rhymes flow.
Some Useful Examples of Already Rewritten Verse
Original Text:
“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness,
starving hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn,
looking for an angry fix angel-headed hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of the night.”
Paraphrased Text:
“I witnessed the greatest minds of our generation ripped apart by insanity,
Hungered, mad, and naked.
They dragged themselves through dark streets at sunset,
On the prowl for angry people who were searching for a connection
To the star-studded sky.”