Unseen Poetry Appreciation
ICSE Class 7 · English · Chapter 12
What this chapter covers
- Reading an unseen poem
- Theme and central idea
- Rhyme scheme and rhythm
- Figures of speech: simile, metaphor and personification
- Figures of speech: alliteration, onomatopoeia and assonance
- Figures of speech: irony and pun
- Imagery and tone
- Personal response to a poem
Key points
- An unseen poem is one you have not studied before; read it twice, read the title, ask who, what, where and how, and mark it before answering.
- Support every answer with a word or phrase quoted from the poem.
- The subject is what a poem is about; the theme is its big idea about life; the central idea joins the two in a few sentences.
- A rhyme scheme is shown with letters such as aabb, abab or abcb; rhythm is the pattern of strong and weak beats.
- Simile compares using "like" or "as"; metaphor says one thing is another; personification gives human qualities to things.
- Alliteration repeats consonant sounds; assonance repeats vowel sounds; onomatopoeia uses words that sound like what they mean.
- Irony says or shows the opposite of what is meant or expected; a pun plays on two meanings of a word or two words that sound alike.
- Imagery appeals to the five senses; tone is the speaker's attitude, and mood is the feeling the poem creates in the reader.
- A strong personal response states your reaction, gives reasons from the poem and links it to your own experience.
Questions answered
What is the subject of the poem?
A small fishing boat that goes out to sea at dawn and returns with a catch of fish at sunset.
Write the rhyme scheme of the first stanza.
abcb. Only "red" and "bed" rhyme; "out" and "grey" do not rhyme with anything.
Find one simile and one metaphor in the first stanza.
Simile: "As bright as a parrot" or "rocks it like a cradle bed". Metaphor: "The sea is a giant".
Find two examples of onomatopoeia.
"Splash" and "creak" (also accept "grumbling").
Quote one image of taste or touch and one image of sight.
Taste or touch: "The salty spray stings lip and eye". Sight: "silver fish piled heaped and high" or "green and red".
What is the tone of the poem? Give one reason.
The tone is cheerful and admiring. The boat is "bright as a parrot", the sea rocks it gently "like a cradle", and it returns safely with a rich catch.
What is the difference between the theme and the subject of a poem?
The subject is what the poem is about on the surface; the theme is the main message or big idea about life that the poem suggests.
Name the figure of speech: "The thunder grumbled like an old man."
Simile, because "like" compares the thunder to an old man. "Grumbled" also adds personification.