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As with an essay, you should prepare and plan your commentary. This means getting to grips with the passage or poem by underlining key words, making notes, highlighting connections, marking how it divides into sections. In other words, a well-prepared commentary will not leave the text on the paper untouched but instead will make a meaningful mess of it. Then, on the basis of this preparation, you should plan your approach to the commentary so that it presents a coherent interpretation, not just a series of unconnected points.

Introduction

The introduction should provide a framework for the main body of your commentary.

i) Prose

You should situate the passage within the work as a whole, e.g. beginning, end, after or before a particular key moment. This should be concise but sufficient: it may be very relevant to explain how the passage relates to what comes before or after, but do not retell the plot at length.

In situating the passage, and on the basis of your preparation and plan, you should also formulate in a brief but open way what you think it is about, what its theme or role is, as a key or framework to your commentary. For example, it may be a turning point in the narrative or key exposition of a character. In this it can be helpful to say something about the mode of the passage. For example, is it narrative or descriptive? Is it humorous or satirical?

ii) Poetry

Situate a poem in the chronology of the poet’s work if you can. In some cases it may also be useful to identify the broader literary context, e.g. the poem’s relation to a movement such as Romanticism. If you know about the biographical context and think it has some significance, then you may add something about that. As with a commentary on a prose passage, this situation of the poem should be concise but sufficient.

In situating the poem, and on the basis of your preparation and plan, you should also formulate in a brief but open way what you think it is about, what its theme is, as a key or framework to your commentary. For example, it may be an archetypal Romantic exploration of man and nature. In this it can be helpful to say something about the mode of the poem and identify its genre or form if you can. For example, is it rhetorical, contemplative or close to a song? Is it narrative or descriptive? Is it an elegy? Is it a sonnet?

The Main Body of the Commentary

A commentary should be concerned with the passage or poem as a whole, but it should also show the development through the passage or poem. This means that an appropriate structure for writing a commentary may be to follow this development. To do so in an illuminating way will very likely involve paying attention to the compositional structure of the passage or poem: does it divide into sections and, if so, how? What is the compositional movement through the passage or poem?

As you write your commentary you should be looking to illuminate the theme or themes (or mood or emotion) that the passage or poem illustrates and explores. This is not just a matter of identifying the theme but also of looking at how it is presented. How does the theme develop? How do contrasting themes relate? Is the theme typical of the story as a whole?

When you refer to the passage or poem, this should be done clearly and succinctly by reference, for example, to first, second etc. paragraphs or sentences (for prose), to first, second etc. stanzas and lines (for poetry). You do not therefore need to quote large sections from the text.

i) Prose

In a story or novel, the theme of the passage may be linked to characterisation. In this case you should consider not only what is revealed about a character but also how this is done, and maybe relate this to other aspects of the passage too. In general, in prose you need to pay particular attention to questions of narration: what is the narrative viewpoint and does it shift? What is the role of the narrator? Is there direct or indirect interior monologue? Whose words are these – the characters or narrator’s or author’s? How does irony function in the passage? What is the role of dialogue or description?

You should look for any key and repeated words/motifs, and for any tropes. What is the significance of the key words or motifs? Is there any use of imagery? Are there any metaphors or similes? What is their significance? Are they standard or original? Are there any other tropes – exaggeration, paradox etc.?

When looking at style in terms of lexis and syntax, you should consider what kinds of word are being used and their register. Does one particular part of speech play a particularly significant role? Are there a lot of adjectives or verbs? Is the lexis conversational? How does the choice of words relate to characterisation? In terms of syntax, pay attention to sentence type and structure. Are there questions or exclamations? Is the syntax simple or complex or convoluted? Is it ornate? This may relate to the meaning of the passage or the writer’s general style.

If you are studying the texts in translation, it may be difficult to comment on aspects of style. If the translation is a good one, however, it may be possible to draw attention to the tone and register of the language, as well as the rhythm of the passage as a whole.

ii) Poetry

You should look for any imagery, for key and recurrent motifs, for key and repeated words, and for any tropes. What is the significance of the images or motifs? How are they arranged or developed through the poem? How do images or repeated words relate to each other? Can you gather them into thematic clusters? Are there any metaphors or similes? What is their significance? Are they standard or original? Are there any other tropes – exaggeration, paradox etc. As with a prose passage, when looking at style in terms of lexis and syntax you should consider what kinds of word are being used and their register (e.g. archaic, Romantic, conversational). Does one particular part of speech play a particularly significant role? Are there a lot of adjectives or verbs? In terms of syntax, pay attention to sentence type and structure. Are there questions or exclamations? Is the syntax simple or complex or convoluted? Is it ornate? This may relate to the meaning of the poem or the poet’s general style.

When dealing with poetry, you should also look at other formal aspects, such as rhyme or sound play, stanza organisation, rhythm and metre, enjambment and internal rhyme (see the separate handout for information on this). We encourage you to develop familiarity with these aspects of poetic form and to enjoy the ‘music’ of poetry, but take care in this area. Effective interpretation usually needs to rest on thorough technical knowledge (‘slow’ and ‘fast’, for example, are not phonemic features in Russian). But you may fruitfully look for repeated sound clusters – especially around the stressed vowel, rather than at the beginning of words – and try and see how these highlight and link key words (this is much more common than onomatopoeia). Stanza organisation and rhyme scheme can help you to identify the compositional structure of the poem, and any change in these will be significant and is likely to accompany and highlight changes on other levels.

Conclusion

A brief conclusion to round off your commentary enables you to summarise the way that you have illuminated what the poem or passage is about and how it works.

Studying Texts in the Original Language

For students reading texts in the original, points about content can be made without always giving the words in the original language, e.g. ‘the emphasis on night and darkness in this passage...’, although you may need to support this by quoting the original words. Points about style should be made by quoting words or phrases in the original, but with an English translation (in brackets) if there is some ambiguity of meaning.

Commentary on a Historical Document

Writing a commentary about a historical document is an exercise in many ways similar to working on a commentary on a passage from prose and poem. However, in your commentary on a historical document you will need to determine

• the type of the document (legal act, administrative document, diplomatic act, polemical work, foreign account, etc.);
• the author of the document; or a group of people or an institution that have generated the document (the government, an oppositional party, the church, etc.);
• the date of the document (or how we can date the document if it has no date);
• the historical context of the documents or events that caused the creation of the document;
• the purpose(s) of the document;
• the impact of the document on historical events;
• the relevance of the document to major historical topics and problems;
• the significance of the document as a historical source.

A commentary is an exercise in close and detailed textual analysis. This may be of a short poem in its entirety or of a passage from a longer text. In this way a commentary repeats the kind of class work that does exactly this – going through a poem or looking at a particular passage in detail. While an essay requires you to draw on the work as a whole to show knowledge, analysis and argument that relates to and illuminates the question set, a commentary illuminates the meaning of a particular poem or passage and the way it works. From this you may be able to move on and say something more general, about the work as a whole or the writer/poet.