Poetry Analysis Using TP-CASTT

TP-CASTT is a process to help you organize your analysis of poetry. Getting Started… TP-CASTT is a process to help you organize your analysis of poetry. When successful, you will reveal true and deeper meanings in a poem; thus, write stronger literary analysis essays.

T is for TITLE Analyze the title first: Write down your predictions. What do you predict this poem will be about? Write down your predictions. We will reflect on the title again after we have read the poem.

READ THE POEM!!!!

P is for PARAPHRASE Paraphrasing is putting something in your own words. After reading the poem, rewrite it in your own words. This may be three sentences or a page, depending on the particular poem. While this may seem tedious and boring, it is a way to make you think about the poem line by line.

C is for CONNOTATION Sound Terms: Alliteration, assonance, consonance, end rhyme, internal rhyme, diction Figurative Language: Personification, metaphor, simile, synecdoche, hyperbole, symbolism, imagery, understatement, irony, paradox Analyze the figures of speech and sound elements of the poem. Use your literary terms for analyzing How do these elements add to the meaning?

A is for ATTITUDE Tone is the attitude of the speaker toward the subject of the poem. What is the tone of this poem?

S is for SHIFT If there is a change in… Time Tone Speaker This should always be noted as this will also affect the meaning. Check your poem for shift.

T is for TITLE (again) At this time, you should reconsider the title. Were you right in your predictions? What other meanings might the title have in light of your analysis? If you still have no clue as to what the title means, reread the poem because you are missing something big.

T is for THEME Theme is the general insight into life conveyed by the author through his/her work. It does not make a judgment. Ex. “Don’t do drugs” is not a theme; it is a moral. It merely states something true to life and the human condition.

How do I find the THEME? Look at the other parts of TPCASTT. What connections do you notice between these lit elements? What insight are all of these working together to convey? Ask yourself: What is the poet trying to say about life?

Review: TP-CASTT Make predictions based on the Title Paraphrase the poem Determine Connotation by searching for literary terms Analyze the speaker’s Attitude to determine the tone of the poem Search for Shifts in time, tone, and speaker Analyze the Title again in light of you reading the poem. Determine the Theme of the poem based on your readings and the other steps of TP-CASTT.

Solitude How still it is here in the woods. The trees Stand motionless, as if they did not dare To stir, lest it should break the spell. The air Hangs quiet as spaces in a marble frieze. Even this little brook, that runs at ease, Whispering and gurgling in its knotted bed, Seems but to deepen with its curling thread Of sound the shadowy sun-pierced silences. Sometimes a hawk screams or a woodpecker Startles the stillness from its fixed mood With his loud careless tap. Sometimes I hear The dreamy white-throat from some far-off tree Pipe slowly on the listening solitude His five pure notes succeeding pensively. Archibald Lampman