ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines how we can use a work's syntactic and thematic contexts to draw it together as a whole and, equally importantly, use these themes better to understand each of its parts. But to understand the syntactic context, the ways words work with each other to generate meaning, we realise how complex even the simplest literary sentence is likely to be, and how the act of reading hides a multitude of complexities. In terms of working out how words hang together to create meaning in prose, the next thing up from the sentence is the paragraph. A paragraph is usually made up of one or more sentences which try to impart one idea or make one point. Here setting out how each part can be better understood with reference to the poem's thematic context, then moved a little more quickly through the middle of the poem, and then gave a more detailed interpretation of the last line.
