When writing about a poems theme and content?
You’re right, the theme is the result of the content, so they’re very similar. It might help if you think of it like this: the content is what is actually said; the theme is why it’s said, it’s the general concept the poem is about. So a poem’s content may be a boy stabbing someone at school, and its theme would be knife crime and the effect of gang-culture on young people. A poem’s content might be a girl in a hospital bed, its theme might then be the shortness of life and the fact that even the young can die. So yes, the theme is the underlying message/meaning of the poem – it’s the whole point of the poem. When you’re talking about the theme, you’re looking at what literally happens in the poem and why it happens and the point the poet is trying to make. Then when you’re talking about the content, you’re looking at the TECHNIQUES the author uses – repetition, metaphor, caesura, rhyme, alliteration. (So you use quotes for both.) Identify the theme, then show how the content creates t
