Home › Glossary › Letter S

Summary remark

Structure
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A concluding statement that synthesizes or restates the poem's main points.

Detailed Definition
Concluding observations or comments providing gentle closure without heavy didacticism or absolute pronouncements. More casual and reflective than concluding morals or final statements, summary remarks guide interpretation while respecting reader's freedom. Robert Frost frequently employed summary remarks that illuminate without dictating meaning. Such endings step back slightly from poem's immediate content to consider broader implications or universal resonances while maintaining conversational rather than authoritative tone. Provides satisfying sense of completion while allowing continued meditation on poem's meanings.
Example
Example in poetry:
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116 ends with a summary remark: “If this be error and upon me proved, / I never writ, nor no man ever loved”; In “Ozymandias,” Shelley concludes with a summary remark on impermanence: “Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!”; Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” closes with a reflective summary: “I took the one less traveled by”; Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise” ends with a defiant summary: “I rise / I rise / I rise”; Emily Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for Death” finishes with a quiet summary of eternity.
Additional Notes
Concluding observations or comments summing up without being overly didactic. More casual than concluding moral or final statement. Provides closure while allowing continued reflection. Robert Frost's gentle final remarks exemplify this. Guides interpretation without forcing single meaning.
Also Known As
closing note final observation terminal comment concluding aside Epiphonema
Skip to main content