A Summary of "On this bus"

In a six-line poem of free verse by Ric Masten, the speaker, riding on a bus, reports his/her sudden realization that all its passengers are equally naked beneath their clothes.

--Jim Benton

To read author's notes about this summary and some relevant discussion questions, click on the "Read More" link below.

NOTES: 

With an especially brief text such as this one, several challenges arise

            that would not be at issue with a longer text:

                        1. Making the summary shorter than the text itself (a defining necessity).

                        2. Distinguishing between a summary and a paraphrase.

                        3. Avoiding exact restatement of the text

QUESTIONS:

1.  How far must a summarizer go to avoid telling what a text is about

            instead of telling what it says?

2.   What kind of interpretive choices threaten a summary’s objectivity?

            In this summary, does the word “equally” eliminate its objectivity? 

            Does the word “sudden”?

3.  How much explanation should be included in an objective summary? 

            Is the opening prepositional phrase a part of this summary itself?

            Is it necessary?

            Does a summary require identifying a genre? an author?

4.   How long should a summary be?

            What could be added to improve this summary?

            What could be omitted?