How to Write a Summary

 

Proficient students understand that summarizing, identifying what is most important and restating the text (or other media) in your own words, is an important tool for college success.

After all, if you really know a subject, you will be able to summarize it. If you cannot summarize a subject, even if you have memorized all the facts about it, you can be absolutely sure that you have not learned it. And, if you truly learn the subject, you will still be able to summarize it months or years from now.

Proficient students may monitor their understanding of a text by summarizing as they read. They understand that if they can write a one- or two-sentence summary of each paragraph after reading it, then that is a good sign that they have correctly understood it. If they can not summarize the main idea of the paragraph, they know that comprehension has broken down and they need to use fix-up strategies to repair understanding.

Summary Writing Format

When writing a summary, remember that it should be in the form of a paragraph.

A summary begins with an introductory sentence that states the text’s title, author and main point of the text as you see it.

A summary is written in your own words.

A summary contains only the ideas of the original text. Do not insert any of your own opinions, interpretations, deductions or comments into a summary.

Identify in order the significant sub-claims the author uses to defend the main point.

Copy word-for-word three separate passages from the essay that you think support and/or defend the main point of the essay as you see it.

Cite each passage by first signaling the work and the author, put “quotation marks” around the passage you chose, and put the number of the paragraph where the passages can be found immediately after the passage.

Using source material from the essay is important. Why? Because defending claims with source material is what you will be asked to do when writing papers for your college professors.

Write a last sentence that “wraps” up your summary; often a simple rephrasing of the main point.

Example Summary Writing Format

In the essay Santa Ana, author Joan Didion’s main point is (state main point). According to Didion “…passage 1…” (para.3). Didion also writes “…passage 2…” (para.8). Finally, she states “…passage 3…” (para. 12) Write a last sentence that “wraps” up your summary; often a simple rephrasing of the main point.

There is Another Sky

 

There is Another Sky

Explanation

Line 1-4

There is another sky,

Ever serene and fair,

And there is another sunshine,

Though it be darkness there;

In the first four lines of ‘There is another sky,’ the speaker suggests that there is “another sky” in addition to the sky that the listener is already familiar with. Under this sky, everything is serene and fair.

Another sunshine even though it’s darkness there. While writing, she can create her world where everything stays as she originally depicted it and is not subject to the ravages (damages and destructions) of time.

Line 5-8

Never mind faded forests, Austin,

Never mind silent fields -

Here is a little forest,

Whose leaf is ever green;1¹

In the next four lines, she addresses her brother, Austin. She asks him to ignore the faded forests and the silent fields of the physical world. Rather, he should come to the little forest that she has created under the new sky. There, the leaf is evergreen. This is an indication that life is endless in this other world, nothing can touch it. This is emphasized further in the next paragraph.

Line 9-14

Here is a brighter garden,

Where not a frost has been;

In its unfading flowers

I hear the bright bee hum:

Prithee, my brother,

Into my garden come!

The speaker continues to describe her garden in these lines, she uses the word brighter to compare the world she has created to the one that everyone lives in physically. It is a place where there never has been, nor will there be a frost.

The flowers are unfading they live forever without ever losing their beauty. There are other forms of life as well, such as the bright bee.

The poet asks her brother Austin and calls her by his nickname “Prithee”, to come to her garden. There he won’t have to be concerned with the dangers of the real world that is aging, or change.

Conclusion

The poem ends with “Into my garden come!” sending out an invitation to her brother and reminding him that their home will always be his home. It is an invitation sent to her brother, Austin, to come back home.

Critical Appreciation

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About the Poem, Poet and Title :- 

The name of the poem is “There is another sky”. It is written by a famous American poetess Emily Dickinson. Her poems are very motivational and highly philosophical about life. Her poems are characterized by simple and short lines.

The poem is highly motivational and philosophical about life. In the poem, the poet is communicating with her brother Austin and pleads with him come to home back. She encourages her brother that there are always other opportunities, options, places, and choices in your life so; don’t be get depressed in your life if you face any difficulties or failures. She pleads to return home. Here are so many things to do in your life. There is another sky the title of the poem is a metaphor itself. The sky is indirectly compared with choices, opportunities, places, etc. it means in our life there are always other (second) options to do.

Theme / Summary / Gist of the Poem : -

There is another Sky is an inspirational poem. Poet motivates her brother to not get depressed under any worst situation because there is always another option in your life, there is another opportunity to take, there is another place to go where you feel the peaceful and fair atmosphere ever. Poet suggests that always be optimistic in our lives.

Poetic Style / Language, Poetic devices :-

It is a Petrarchan sonnet that consists of fourteen lines with octave and sestet. The language of the poem is simple and short. It has only two stanzas, the first stanza consists of eight lines and the second stanza consists of six lines. In the poem, the poet has used a number of devices to express her inner feelings as well as poetic effects with Alliteration, metaphor, personification, antithesis, onomatopoeia, hyperbole, inversion, etc.

Message / values / Morals of the Poem : –

The poem has an optimistic tone. Poet suggests that always be optimistic in life. Life is full of challenges; one should face the challenges with a positive attitude. Don’t be upset or regret under any worst situation, there is another good option to choose, there is another opportunity in your life and there is another sky.

Your opinion about the poem: -

I am really impressed and inspired by reading this poem. I understood the importance of life and always being optimistic in our life, whether any difficulty, problem, or worst situation will come in our life do not get depressed, upset, or regret. We should live in hopefulness that there is another opportunity, choice, or place in our life. There is another sky in our life.

Global Understanding

What are the sad and gloomy aspects of life in the poem?

Faded forests, silent fields,darkness

The poet is addressing to whom?

Her younger brother named Austin.

Vocabulary/Poetic Devices

Write the antonyms of the following words.

Turbulent – serene

Bright – faded

 

Give a pair of rhyming words from the poem.

Fair-there

 

Write down the similar meaning proverbs :

Every cloud has a silver lining.

Ans.  All’s well that ends well.

He who falls today may rise tomorrow.

Blessings in disguise.

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Interpretation/Analysis

Make a list of expressions in the poem that mean encouragement.

Brighter garden, not a frost has been, bright bee hum, unfading flowers.

 

Use the following words to make meaningful sentences.

1. Unfading  2. Prithee

 

Personal Opinion

Suggest some ways that will help your younger sibling to concentrate on his/her studies and overcome his/her bad habit of wasting time playing games on her cell phone.

Ans. Some ways to help concentrate on studies and overcome bad habits.

Make a time schedule for studying, for how many hours you will study in a day and what will be those study hours

While studying make sure you will not touch your mobile phone, keep it away. It is a big distraction.

Take a break of 10-15 minutes in between long study hours or it will be tiring and monotonous.

Resolute in your mind that you will complete a particular topic on that very day and will not keep it for the next day.

“There is Another Sky”

 “There is Another Sky” is a sonnet that illustrates the beauty of nature itself. The poem was written in conjunction with a letter the writer sent to her brother pleading him to come back home. She would give anything for him to come back.

The lines are short, only 3 to 5 metric feet, and with Dickinson’s characteristic slant rhyme, the rhyme scheme is rough, ABCBCDECFCGHIH. This innovative sonnet sections itself into two quatrains and a sestet, making it a gentle melding of the English and Italian sonnets.

In the first four lines of ‘There is another sky,’ the speaker begins by making use of the line that later came to be used as the title. Dickinson’s poetry more often than not went without titles. They are usually known by the first line or by a number. The speaker suggests that there is “another sky” in addition to the sky that the listener is already familiar with. Under this sky, everything is serene and fair.

Another sunshine even though it’s darkness there. While it is not entirely clear at this point what these lines refer to, as the speaker progresses it becomes clear that she is describing her writing through an elaborate metaphysical conceit. While writing, she can create her world where everything stays as she originally depicted it and is not subject to the ravages of time.

In the next four lines, she addresses her brother, Austin. She asks this man to ignore the faded forests and the silent fields of the physical world. Rather, he should come to the little forest that she has created under the new sky. There, the leaf is evergreen. This is an indication that life is endless in this other world, nothing can touch it. This is emphasized further in the next paragraph.

The speaker continues to describe her garden in these lines, she uses the word brighter to compare the world she has created to the one that everyone lives in physically. It is a place where there never has been, nor will there be a frost. This is an allusion to death, change, and anything negative that in the real world is a true risk.

The flowers are unfading they live forever without ever losing their beauty. There are other forms of life as well, such as the bright bee. These warm and bright images are concluded with the final couplet, or set of two lines at the end of a Shakespearean sonnet.

The poet asks her brother Austin and calls her by his nickname “Prithee”, to come to her garden. There he won’t have to be concerned with the dangers of the real world that is aging, or change.

Conclusion

The poem ends with “Into my garden come!” sending out an invitation to her brother and reminding him that their home will always be his home. However, the nature of the poem allows it to be interpreted in another manner where Emily is describing herself to her brother. But, regardless of interpretation, it is still an invitation sent to her brother, Austin, to come back home.

There is Another Sky

 

The title ‘There is another sky’ is the very first line of this piece. It is a reference to the sky of an imaginative world, a metaphorical reference to her poetry. Besides, the term “another” adds an out-worldly effect to this poem. It seems as if the poet is talking about a world that does not have a physical existence. Readers are aware of the world in which everyone lives. So, through the title, Dickinson refers to her poetry and compares it to an evergreen garden. She requests her brother Austin to come there and spend a few happy moments together.

Structure

Dickinson’s ‘There is another sky’ is a fourteen-line sonnet that is contained within a single stanza of text. These lines do not follow either of the two most famous sonnet rhyme schemes, those belonging to the Shakespearean sonnet and the Petrarchan sonnet. Rather, Dickinson uses a combination of half-rhymes and perfect rhymes in order to create a feeling of rhyme that runs throughout the text. They follow a loose pattern ABCBCDECFCGHIH. In regards to meter, the lines are closely related, with three to five metrical feet per line. 

There is Another Sky is a poem sent by the poet, Emily Dickinson, along with a letter to her brother,Austin,who was staying away from home. He might have faced some sadness or confusion and was unable to handle it alone. So, Emily's poem was intended to support him by presenting a brighter side of life. This poem is a sonnet comprising of two stanzas, one of eight lines called octave and another of six lines called sestet. In its presentation of nature and its glorification of the beauties of nature it resembles Shakespearean Sonnets. The tone of the poem is very encouraging as the poet compares two places, there and here and suggests her brother to shift from 'there' to here' to get solace. According to the poet, there' it might the darkness and gloom all around since that is the worldly place. She invites her brother to come 'here' which is a heavenly place with evergreen forests, unfading flowers and humming bees. There is positivity everywhere and that can easily help the brother to come out of the miseries he is troubled with. This ever-lasting appeal of the heavenly place that is, one's own home, gives the poem a hymn-like quality Emily Dickinson deliberately creates an image of a warm and peaceful garden in the second stanza, where there is no existence of forest that represents darkness and pain. This is to convince her brother the possible solution of his suffering and it is not difficult to achieve if he comes back from Boston to Amherst, their hometown, where they have spent a lot of happy times together At the end, she requested her brother to come back to her garden' of bliss. With short lines, bright images, she presented an ideal world where everything appeared favourable. There lied the appeal of the poem which could boost the morale of a person, by circumstances. Sad moments might happen in life, but remedies for them did exist. Emily, the loving sister, wanted to make her brother realise that with the help of this toshort hut beautiful poem, having an inspiring and hopeful tone. She invites her brother to come to her garden and that is a clear hint that this world she creates in her imagination.

Dickinson makes use of several poetic techniques in ‘There is another sky’. These include but are not limited to alliteration, enjambment, and metaphor.

Metaphor: The latter is the most important technique at work. It is seen throughout the entire poem. Dickinson constructed it as one long extended metaphor that compares her writing, and the world she creates with her pen, to a garden.

Metonymy: The “unfading flowers” are a metonym (or symbol) of an allusion to the way that time has no power over her written creations. 

Alliteration: occurs when words are used in succession, or at least appear close together, and begin with the same sound. For example, “faded forests” and “fields” in lines five and six.

Enjambment: Another important technique commonly used in poetry is enjambment. It occurs when a line is cut off before its natural stopping point. Enjambment forces a reader down to the next line, and the next, quickly. One has to move forward in order to comfortably resolve a phrase or sentence; For example, the transition between lines eleven and twelve: “In its unfading flowers/ I hear the bright bee hum”.

In the first four lines of ‘There is another sky,’ the speaker begins by making use of the line that later came to be used as the title. Dickinson’s poetry more often than not went without titles. They are usually known by the first line or by a number. The speaker suggests that there is “another sky” in addition to the sky that the listener is already familiar with. Under this sky, everything is “serene and fair”. Another sun shines there despite the fact that it’s “darkness there”. 

While it is not entirely clear at this point what these lines refer to, as the speaker progresses it becomes clear that she is describing her writing through an elaborate metaphysical conceit. While writing, she is able to create her own world where everything stays as she originally depicted it and is not subject to the ravages of time.

In the next quatrain, she addresses her brother, Austin. She asks this man to ignore the “faded forests” and the “silent fields” of the physical world. Rather, he should come to the little forest that she has created under the new sky. There, the “leaf is ever green”. This is an allusion to the way that life is sustained in this other world, nothing can touch it. This is emphasized further in the third quatrain.

The speaker continues to describe her garden in the third and final quatrain. In these lines, she uses the word “brighter” to compare the world she has created to the one that everyone lives in physically. It is a place where there never has been, nor will there be, “a frost”. This is an allusion to death, change, and anything negative that in the real world is a true risk.  The flowers are “unfading,” they live forever without ever losing their beauty. There are other forms of life as well, such as the “bright bee”.

These warm and bright images are concluded with the final couplet, or set of two lines at the end of a Shakespearean sonnet. They ask Austin, the poet’s brother, to again “come” to her garden. There, within her writing, he won’t have to be concerned with the dangers of the real world, aging, or change.

Critical Appreciation

Dickinson’s ‘There is another sky’ is a sonnet that taps on to several interpretations. Firstly, the tone of the poem guides readers to imagine a fairy-tale-like world. One has to imagine this place as it does not have any physical existence. The poet welcomes her brother to that place. Besides, to look at this poem from a different perspective one has to focus on the theme, timelessness of poetry. Through this poem, the poet metaphorically compares her literary world to an evergreen garden. So, the poem is in the form of a request to her brother to dive into her creation. Besides, the description of the garden is an allusion to the “Garden of Eden”, a biblical paradise described in Genesis 2-3.

Historical Context

The poem ‘There is another sky’ was first published in “Poems by Emily Dickinson, First Series”. It came to print in November 1890. This poem belongs to the pre-1861 writings of Dickinson. During that period, she mostly wrote on sentimental themes. Two of her earlier poetry are conventional lyrics and one is addressed to Austin. In this poem, she misses her brother and prays him to return to her. She refers to a metaphorical garden of which her brother is also aware. This poem also contains some Christian symbols that hint at the poet’s religious belief.