commentary tips for english

1. Below are some literary devices to get you started.
 Accent: refers to the stressed portion of a word. An accent is used to place emphasis on
a word.
 Note: accent and stress can be used interchangeably.
 Allegory: A description that has a second, usually moral meaning.
 Alliteration: is the repetition of initial (at the beginning) CONSONANT sounds (if it's
a vowel repetition, you would call it assonance. Assonance includes any repetition of
a vowel sound in any part of the word. It usually occurs in the middle of words).
 Allusion: refers to an event from an external content. It is understandable only to
those with prior knowledge of the reference in question (as the writer assumes the
reader has).
 Apostrophe: Something that addresses an object or person or idea who is not
present as though he/she/it could reply.
 Antithesis: The juxtaposition of contrasting words or ideas to create a feeling of
balance (e.g Too black for heaven, and yet too white for hell)
 Assonance: The repetition of vowel sounds may also add to euphony.
 Aubade: Poetry referring to either the dawn, a love song or about parting lovers.
 Ballad: A form of poetry in a specific meter meant to be sung. There is always a
repeating refrain and it is always narrative in form. See below for more information.
 Blank verse: Iambic Pentameter that doesn't rhyme. (Much of Shakespeare's plays
for example were written in blank verse.)
 Caesura: A cut or break in a line, could be a comma or a semicolon.
 Cacophony: Harsh sounding and generally unpleasant.
 Consonance: The repetition of consonant sounds NOT in the beginning of a word
(which would be alliteration). Enforces relation.

2.  Continuous Form: Lines follow each other without any type of structural
organization except by blocks of meaning.
 Didactic Poetry: Poetry with a directly morally teaching purpose.
 Ethos: the validity of the source or narrator/ speaker.
 Euphony: Pleasant sounding.
 Extended Figure: An apostrophe, simile, metaphor, etc. which is developed
throughout a poem.
 Imagery: Language which appeals to each of the five senses.
 Visual imagery: Sight. The most frequent type.
 Aural or auditory imagery: Sound.
 Olfactory imagery: Smell.
 Gustatory imagery: Taste.
 Tactile imagery: Touch, tangibility.
 Organic imagery: Human sensations, hunger for example.
 Irony: Dramatic or otherwise, conveying an aspect that is intrinsically
unexpected or self-contradictory.
 Metaphor: A comparison between two unlike things without using the words
"like" or "as".
 Onomatopoeia: Words which are written to mimic a sound. (SHAZAM! SPLAT!
PLOP!)
 Paradox: A statement which appears to contradict itself but makes sense
(usually in an abstract sense).
 Personification: Animals and inanimate objects are given human
characteristics.
 Phonetic Intensive: A word whose sound emphasizes its meaning.
 Prose: Language which is not in meter.

3.  Refrain: A repeated line, phrase, sentence, etc. which appears throughout a
poem.
 Rhetorical Poetry: Poetry written in superfluous language with the intention of
being overdramatic.
 Scansion: The process of measuring verse.
 Simile: The comparison of two subjects using "like" or "as" or something similar
 Sonnet: See link.
 Tone: The writer's attitude toward the subject.
Advanced Vocabulary for the Daring
 Anaphora: Repetition of the same word or words from the beginning of sentences, lines,
or phrases.
 Ars Poetica: A poem about poetry
 Conceit: The comparison of two dissimilar things. "Shall I compare thee to a summer's
day"
 Dramatic monologue: Narrator speaks to himself. The speaker is not the author.
 Epiphany: A realization or comprehension of the essence of something.
 Feminine Rhyme: Two syllable (Disyllabic) rhyme consisting of stressed syllable
followed by unstressed
 Incantation: Use of words to create an archaic effect. (Opening scene of Macbeth and
the Weird Sisters)
 Incremental repetition: Repetition of succeeding stanzas with small substitutions of
changes.
 Masculine rhyme: Monosyllabic rhymes.
 Metonymy: Substitutes the name of one thing with something closely associated with it.
 Synecdoche: Substitutes a part of one thing to represent the whole, or vice versa.
 Pathetic fallacy: A reflection of the action/events through nature/weather. (A
thunderstorm during the creation of Frankenstein's monster sequence)

4.  Persona: The character created by the narrator.
 Synaesthesia: A blending of sensations.
 Trope: A way of extending the meanings of words beyond the literal.
Types of Poems[edit]
 Alexandrine: Twelve-syllable poetic line of French origin.
 Couplet: A poem or section consisting of two successive lines, usually rhyming and
having the same meter and often forming a complete thought.
 Elegy: A poem of loss and consolation.
 Panegyric: Praise for an individual, a group of people, or a body.
 Sonnet: A poem of fourteen lines, usually following a strict rhyme scheme/structure.
 Stichic: A poem which is a continuous sequence of lines without any division into
stanzas.
 Villanelle: 19 lines divided into 6 stanzas 5 of 3 and 1 of 4.
 Apostrophe: A poem directed to a person or thing not present/alive.
Step 1: Reading the Poem[edit]
 Read the poem silently once. Take a mental note or actually write down if you can't
remember any impressions, emotions, or confusions the poem may originally stir.
 Read the poem once more; try to understand its meaning or the course of events it may
describe.
 Read the poem aloud if possible. If you're in an exam room you can read the poem
under your breath. Take note of the tone and speed of the poem.
 Read the poem again and take notes about the literal and figurative context of the poem.
This should include its meaning on the literal level and any figurative meanings it may
include.

5.  Read the poem again, this time looking for literary devices. These should be, but not
limited to:
 Imagery
 Assonance
 Consonance
 Onomatopoeia and Phonetic Intensive words
 Metaphors, Similes, and Personifications.
 Juxtaposition and Contrast
 Once you're sure you've found these literary devices, proceed to look further for:
 What does the title suggest- is it related to our understanding of the poem?
 Note: Compare your first impression of the title to its actual meaning.
 Does the poem have an apostrophe?
 Are sections cacophonic or euphonic? If so, do the previous literature features make
them so?
 Is there any irony?
 Does the poem have an extensive figure?
 Is there a refrain?
 Next, once you've gone through the poem's meaning and its literary devices- it's
time to look for form!
 Note: Knowing a poem's scansion is not necessarily required. You don't need to state
this poem is written in dactylic hectometre, but it’s pretty obvious if a poem is written in
iambic pentameter and counting meter isn't too difficult.
 Is the poem in a continuous form, a stanzaic form, or a fixed form? (Such as a Ballad or
a Sonnet)

6.  Take note of the poem's structure- howmany stanzas, how many lines, etc.
 Make extra note of the author's tone and how this influences the poem.
Step 2: Looking for Detail[edit]
 Now that you've found the poem's literal and figurative meanings, its form, and its literary
devices - it's time to get to work!
 Make connections - in what ways do the poem's literary devices add to the poem's
meaning?
 What effect does the writer's tone have on the reader's perception of the poem?
 What effect does meter and form have on meaning?
An excellent way of keeping your entire commentary in focus is, asking yourself
these simple yet significant questions:
1) What's being said (content, maybe theme, character, ideas, relationships,
ideas, love, peace etc.)
2) How is it being said (stylistic devices, rhyme, structure, diction, etc.)
3) So What? (I.e. for what ends, purposes, extrapolation chances, personal
connection and response, etc.)
Remember it's not a grocery list of memorized terms- barfed out in a time period
of 2 hours. It is supposed to be an intricate and insightful response to what you
as a reader, understand from the text, the author's intended message. The
planning phase is perhaps the most important, even more important than the
writing phase (which comes naturally succeeding it, if planning goes well the
written should be equally responsive).

7. Step 3: Structuring your Commentary[edit]
 There is no definitive structure to a poetry commentary; this isn't like writing a history
essay. However, structure is an important aspect in writing a poem commentary and you
can prepare yourself in advance by having some notion of the order in which you will
write. Here is an example of a possible essay structure:
 Note: Everyone is different, if you want to write your poetry commentary in a different
form, by all means do so- this is merely a suggestion aimed at guiding your writing.
 Introduction
 State the poem's title, author, and a small introduction to the poem's overall literal
meaning.
 State the poem's form, and any important literary devices which appear throughout it.
 Write about an important aspect of the poem which you will further discuss in your
wildcard paragraph and eventually conclude in your last paragraph.
 Paragraph One: Structure and Narration
 Briefly mention the poem's structure. Make note of the use of Enjambment or
the juxtaposition of words.
 Write about the poem's meter and its speed.
 Make note of the poem's speaker (do not use narrator) and his/her tone.
 Paragraph Two: Meaning
 State the poem's literal meaning.
 State the poem's figurative meaning.
 Paragraph Three: Devices

8.  Write about the poem's literary devices.
 Write about important themes present in the poem.
 Paragraph Four: Combine
 Write how literary devices and meaning interconnect.
 This paragraph should begin to bring things together.
 Paragraph Five: The Wild Card
 Introduce an important theme or aspect of the poem in great detail. This could be a
refrain, an extended figure or an apostrophe.
 Conclusion
 The conclusion should combine the Wild Card with the above paragraphs. In this case,
one could talk about how literary devices or the poem's structure aid in supporting an
extended figure.
Here is another suggestion for a structure
which requires about 10-15 minutes of
planning, but is still just as efficient-
 Introduction
 State the poem's title, author, and a small introduction to the poem's overall literal
meaning.
 If any, state the relevance of the background of the author (i.e. their philosophies,
causes, a message..)
 Construct a 'map' to your answer. Concisely, write one sentence on each idea that will
be put forth in the essay

9.  Paragraph One: Idea One
 Use PETER
 Point: State the point you are trying to prove, e.g. The conflict in the extract symbolizes
change
 Evidence: Give evidence for the conflict by quoting
 Technique: State the literary features
 Elaboration: Develop your point further and give a deeper explanation on your point.
Also state the reason for the point that the author was trying to make, or the reason for
which the literary feature was used
 Response: Describe the emotions or ideas evoked into the reader, if any
 Paragraph Two: Idea Two
 e.g. Point: The first person narrative is used to gain empathy from the reader.
 (Follow the same pattern as used for the first idea)
(An ideal commentary has 3-5
ideas. Remember to focus more
on developing the ideas than to
have more of them. 3 well
developed ideas will fetch more
marks than 6 baseless points.)
 Conclusion
 (Off record: One must realize that a conclusion is usually just the introduction which is
paraphrased with a more conclusive tone and possibly a fact or two more!)

10.  The conclusion must contain a brief summation of all the points you have made and why
were they the most important. It could also include some personal interpretation that you
are not confident about adding in the body of your essay.
Step 4: Example Commentary[edit]
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A Poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,

11. They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils
 First impression: The poem is extremely euphonic and uses quite a bit of pleasant
imagery. When spoken, it rolls off the tongue naturally. This reinforces the poem's joyful
tone which proceeds through out the poem except for momentarily in the fourth stanza
where the first two lines are cacophonic. The poem deals with an extended figure which
may be considered an apostrophe.
 Structure: The poem is in a stanzaic form of four stanzas of six lines each. The rhyming
scheme alternates at first, ABAB, but ends in a rhyming couplet CC which adds to the
euphony of the poem and the ease at which it's spoken. The lines are in iambic
tetrameter.
 Note: Meter can be found by counting the syllables in each line and simply dividing them
by two. If this is the same for each line, then the poem is written in a specific meter.
 Speaker: The speaker is obviously the poet himself. By sharing his own first
experiences with such a crowd of daffodils the reader gains the same first
impressions.
 Literal Meaning: The poet recalls his first experience of seeing such a wondrous
crowd of daffodils beside a bay. The blowing wind moves them in an awesome
formation, a spectacle of nature of which the poet remembers in order to lift his
spirits.
 Figurative Meaning: Everyone has had their good experiences in life. Perhaps it's
the sensation of getting a new dog or seeing a beautiful bird take flight. It's important
for us to remember those experiences, in times when we are down.

12.  Imagery: Lots of visual imagery
 "Golden daffodils" (4)
 "Sparkling waves" (14)
 "stars that shine / and twinkle on the milky way" (7-8)
 Kinesthetic imagery
 "Fluttering and dancing in the breeze" (6)
 "Tossing their heads in sprightly dance" (12)
 "The waves beside them danced" (13)
 Metaphors and Similes
 "I wandered lonely as a cloud" (1)
 "Continuous as the stars" (7)
 Personification of the Daffodils
 I saw a crowd / a host, of golden daffodils (3-4)
 Tossing their heads in sprightly dance (12)
 In such a jocund company (16)
 Assonance
 A host of golden daffodils (3)
 Beside the lake, beneath the trees (6)
 For oft when on my couch (19)
 heart with pleasures fills (23)
 Alliteration
 Beside... beneath... breeze (5-6)

13.  stars...stretch...shine (7-8)
 glee...gay...gazed...gazed (13-15)
 Repetition:
 Dance (6), (12), (13), (24)
 Gazed (15)
 Wildcard: Importance of the Speaker
 The speaker shows a great tranquility and appreciation of nature. The juxtaposition of
the first two lines of the last paragraph with the rest of the poem and the use of the word
"couch" suggest unhappiness with the material surroundings.
 Great! Now that we've written down the basic aspects of the poem- it's time for us to
connect their meanings and effects!