Reading Comprehension Success in 20 Minutes a Day, 3rd Edition

What Does It Mean?
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.
8. Which of the following best summarizes the
theme of the poem?
a. Don’t steal; it can kill you.
b. Choose your enemies carefully.
c. If you don’t talk about your anger, it can be
deadly.
–
F I N D I N G M E A N I N G I N L I T E R AT U R E
–
1 3 9

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Before you go any further, think about your
answer again. Like a main idea, a theme must be gen-
eral 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?
You should have chosen answer 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.

H o w L a n g u a g e C o n v e y s
E m o t i o n
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 emo-
tion or a picture, you’ll be ready to put your under-
standing of the action and the language together to
understand the meaning of a poem.
Practice Passage 2
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 pic-
ture. 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
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
crag = steep 
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
or rugged rock
Ringed with the azure world, he stands.
azure = 
sky blue
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.