Finding Meaning in Literature Help

Finding Meaning in Literature

Literature (novels, poems, stories, and plays) can be quite intimidating to many readers. In literature, meanings are often implied, and messages and themes are not conveniently housed in a topic sentence. However, no matter what you are reading, you can feel confident that the author has left behind clues that will help you to find the theme (the main idea). As an active reader, you are now well-equipped to read between the lines to find meaning in anything you read.

Throughout these pages, you have spent a great deal of time locating the main ideas in various pieces of writing. Finding the theme of a work of literature is similar to finding the main idea in an article, passage, or memo. Just as the main idea is more than the subject of a given article, passage, or memo, the theme of a work of literature is also more than just its subject: It is what the text says about that subject. Theme, in other words, is the overall message or idea that a work of literature conveys. For example, you can probably figure out from the title that the subject of John Donne's poem "Death Be Not Proud" is death. However, the theme is not merely "death," but what the poem says about death, which happens to be that death is a gift if one believes in God.

There isn't room in this short lesson to look at theme in a short story, novel, or play. So this lesson will introduce you to a few poems. But don't be frightened: Reading poetry is really just like reading anything else. You just have to read a little more carefully and rely a little more on your sense of observation. You find themes in poetry the same way you do in other kinds of writing: by looking for clues in what happens and in the words the writer uses to describe what happens.

How Action Conveys Theme

First, look at an example of how the action of a poem—what happens in it—leads you to understand the theme.

Finding Meaning in Literature Practice and Answers

Read the following poem by William Blake from his book Songs of Experience, published in 1794. Read it out loud, because poetry is meant to be heard as well as read. Then read it again with your pen in hand: Read actively, making your observations and comments in the margins. Then answer the questions that follow.

A Poison Tree

I was angry with my friend;

wrath

anger

foe

enemy

I told it not, my wrath did grow.

And I water'd it in fears,

Night & morning with my tears;

And I sunned it with smiles,

wiles

trickery

deceit

And it grew both day and night,

Till it bore an apple bright;

And my foe beheld it shine,

And he knew that it was mine.

And into my garden stole

veiled

concealed

In the morning glad I see

My foe outstretch'd beneath the tree.

Practice

What happens in the first stanza?

The speaker was angry with
1. a friend.
2. a foe.
3. a friend and a foe.
How did the speaker handle his anger toward his friend?
1. He told his friend about it and it went away.
2. He kept it to himself and it grew.
3. He kept it to himself and it went away.
How did the speaker handle his anger toward his foe?
1. He told his friend about it and it went away.
2. He kept it to himself and it grew.
3. He kept it to himself and it went away.

Now look at the second stanza. The key to understanding this stanza is knowing what it refers to. Reread the first and second stanzas carefully in order to answer the next question.

It refers to
1. tears.
2. smiles.
3. wrath.

Now, given these clues (and the best clue of all, the title of the poem), to what exactly is the speaker comparing his wrath?

The speaker compares his wrath to
1. a flower.
2. a tree.
3. the sun.

What else happens in the third stanza?

In the third stanza, the foe
1. grows his own apple.
2. shines the speaker's apple.
3. sees the speaker's apple.

Finally, what happens in the fourth stanza? This stanza is somewhat trickier than the others, because in this stanza, something happens that is not directly stated. You know that the foe sneaks into the speaker's garden ("And into my garden stole"), but what else happens?

The poem doesn't exactly tell you, but you can guess. The speaker had an apple; you know that this apple grew on a tree and that this tree is a metaphor for the speaker's anger. You also know that the poem is called "A Poison Tree." You read in the fourth stanza that, in the morning, the speaker finds his foe "outstretch'd beneath the tree." What can you conclude?

At the end of the fourth stanza, the foe
1. is waiting to ambush the speaker and kill him with the apple.
2. has been killed by the apple he stole because it was poisonous.
3. is waiting to share the apple with the speaker.

Okay, so that's what happened in the poem. But what does it all mean?

Look again at the action. What the speaker did was to tell his friend about his wrath. What the speaker didn't do was to tell his enemy about his wrath. The results of the speaker's action and his inaction are your clues to the meaning of the poem as a whole, its theme.

Which of the following best summarizes the theme of the poem?
1. Don't steal; it can kill you.
2. Choose your enemies carefully.
3. If you don't talk about your anger, it can be deadly.

Before you go any further, think about your answer again. Like a main idea, a theme must be general enough to encompass the whole work, not just a piece of it. Does the answer you chose encompass the whole poem and not just part of it?

Answers

c
a
b.
Choice c—wrath—is the last thing mentioned in the first stanza, so it follows that wrath is what it refers to. The second stanza tells us that the speaker "water'd" it (his wrath) with fears and "sunned" it with smiles and wiles. How can this be? Can you literally water and sun your anger? No, but the speaker is not being literal here. Instead, he is using figurative language. Like the similes we saw earlier about Coach Lerner, comparing his voice to a foghorn and his haircut to that of a drill sergeant, this stanza uses a metaphor—a comparison that doesn't use the words like or as—to compare the speaker's wrath to something that grows with water and sun.
The answer is b, a tree. The title gives this away. Also, a tree is the only plant that could bear "an apple bright," as in the third stanza.
The answer is c, the foe sees the speaker's apple ("my foe beheld it shine").
Which answer do your clues add up to? The only one that can be correct is b. The speaker was angry; the tree (and so the apple) was poisonous. You know that the foe, seeing the apple, snuck into the speaker's garden. Apparently he ate the apple, because now he's "outstretch'd beneath the tree." You also know that the speaker is "glad" to see his foe outstretched this way—he's glad to see him dead.
You should have selected choice c, for this is the idea that sums up the message or "lesson" of the poem. In the first two lines, the speaker's wrath for his friend vanished when he talked about it, but he did not talk about his wrath for his enemy. Instead, he let it grow until it was poisonous and deadly.

How Language Conveys Emotion

In addition to conveying a theme, poems also often use language to create a powerful image or emotion. After looking at how poets use language to convey an emotion or a picture, you'll be ready to put your understanding of the action and the language together to understand the meaning of a poem.

How Language Conveys Emotion Practice and Answers

Take a look at the following poem by British poet Alfred Lord Tennyson as an example of how language can convey a strong feeling by conveying an image or picture. Read "The Eagle" twice out loud—remember, poetry is meant to be heard, not just seen. Then mark it up and write your observations in the margin.

The Eagle

crag

steep

or rugged rock

azure

sky blue

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;

He watches from his mountain walls,

And like a thunderbolt he falls.

Practice

What did you notice about the language in this poem? Did you notice the rhyme in each stanza—hands, lands, stands and crawls, walls, falls? Did you notice the repetition of the "k" sound in clasps, crag, and crooked? This repetition of sounds (especially at the beginning of words) is called alliteration.

Which other line of this poem uses alliteration?
1. line 2
2. line 3
3. line 6

You may have noticed another poetic device at work in this poem. In line 1, the poet tells us that the eagle ("he") "clasps" the rock "with crooked hands." Do eagles have hands? No, they do not, but Tennyson gives the eagle human characteristics. When an animal is given human characteristics, or when an inanimate thing (like a rock, for example) is given animate characteristics (human or animal), it is called personification.

Which other line of this poem uses personification?
1. line 2
2. line 4
3. line 6

Here's a memory test:

Line 6, "And like a thunderbolt he falls," uses which of the following poetic devices?
1. personification
2. simile
3. irony

What is the effect of this comparison?

The comparison of the eagle to a thunderbolt makes the reader think of the eagle as
1. a weak, timid creature.
2. an unpredictable creature.
3. a powerful, fast creature.

Answers

The answer is line 2, which repeats the l sound in "lonely lands."
The other example of personification is found in line 4, where the sea "crawls" like a baby or a turtle.
This line uses, choice b, a simile that compares the eagle to a thunderbolt.
Like all good similes, this comparison creates a vivid image that not only helps us actually picture the eagle's flight, but also tells us something about the eagle by comparing it to the incredible force of nature that is lightning. The eagle, this simile suggests, is as powerful, as fast, as dangerous—and as impossible to catch—as a thunderbolt. We should, in short, be as awed by the eagle as we are by lightning—and that feeling, more than an idea we might call a theme, is what this poem is all about.

TIP: Poets often use figurative language or descriptive words that are not commonly used in casual speech. For example, a poet might use an archaic form of English or write in an unfamiliar vernacular. If you are having trouble understanding a particular passage that contains unfamiliar words, or words that are arranged in unusual patterns, it can be helpful to rewrite the passage in words you use more commonly in your daily life. That way, you can easily find the meaning of the passage. (It's like cracking a code!)

Action + Language = Theme

In the final poem for today, by American poet Stephen Crane, see if you can determine the theme of the poem by looking at both the action of the poem and its language (diction, style, and tone). As before, begin by reading the poem carefully, first out loud and then with pen in hand.

Action + Language = Theme Practice and Answers

A Man Said to the Universe

A man said to the universe:

"Sir, I exist!"

"However," replied the universe,

"The fact has not created in me

A sense of obligation."

Practice

Which sentence best summarizes the theme of this poem?
1. The universe is too big for humanity.
2. The universe is indifferent to humanity.
3. Humanity has an obligation to the universe.
Which of the following best describes the tone of this poem?
1. warm, caring
2. hot, angry
3. cold, formal

Answers

The best choice is b, "The universe is indifferent to humanity." This idea is conveyed in part by the action of the poem: what the man says to the universe and the universe's reply. But the universe's indifference is also reflected in the language of the poem.
c. The words of this poem—especially sir, fact, and sense of obligation—are cold, formal words that reflect the way the universe feels about humans: indifferent. There is no sense of intimacy, no relationship, no warmth in these words. The poet's diction and style help to reveal the theme of the poem.

Summary

Reading poetry wasn't so bad after all, was it? If you are an active reader who is sensitive to the language used by the poet, you can use the clues the poet gives you to help you enjoy the pictures and emotions created through words and understand the poem's theme. And if you can do this for poems, you can certainly do it for stories, novels, and plays as well.

TIP: One way to become a skilled reader is to learn how to react to a text in an interactive manner. You are an active and participatory reader if you:

Read carefully and pay attention to important organizational and content clues, such as titles.
Grant yourself the freedom to question the author's theories and/or motivations.
Allow yourself to be impressed or moved by what you have read.
Spend the time it takes to fully absorb the text. Some texts can be read in a single sitting, while more challenging subjects or texts might require a lengthier, closer reading or multiple readings.

Practice exercises for this concept can be found at Reading and Drawing Conclusions Practice Test.

Test your knowledge at Reading Comprehension Final Practice Test.

View Full Article

Finding Meaning in Literature Help (page 3)