TPCASTT Shift: Note shifts in speakers and attitudes Title: Ponder the title before reading the poem Paraphrase: Translate the poem into your own words Connotation: Contemplate the poem for meaning beyond the literal level Attitude: Observe both the speaker’s and the poet’s attitude (tone). Shift: Note shifts in speakers and attitudes Title: Examine the title again, this time on an interpretive level Theme: Determine what the poet is saying

TITLE Look at the title an attempt to predict what the poem will be about. Example: “The Red Wheelbarrow” William Carlos Williams so much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens.

PARAPHRASE Paraphrase the literal meaning or “plot” of the poem. A true understanding of the poem must evolve from comprehension of “what’s going on in the poem.” Example: Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow. My little horse must think it queer To stop without a farmhouse near Between the woods and frozen lake The darkest evening of the year. He gives his harness bells a shake To ask if there is some mistake. The only other sound's the sweep Of easy wind and downy flake. The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.

CONNOTATION For poetry, connotation indicates that students should examine any and all poetic devices, focusing on how such devices contribute to the meaning, the effect, or both of a poem. Students may consider imagery (especially simile, metaphor, personification), symbolism, diction, point of view, and sound devices (alliteration, onomatopoeia, rhythm, and rhyme). Example: From “Daddy” by Sylvia Plath Not God but a swastika So black no sky could squeak through. Every woman adores a Fascist, The boot in the face, the brute Brute heart of a brute like you.

ATTITUDE Having examined the poem’s devices and clues closely, you are ready to explore the multiple attitudes that may be present in the poem. (Tone) Example: Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow. My little horse must think it queer To stop without a farmhouse near Between the woods and frozen lake The darkest evening of the year. He gives his harness bells a shake To ask if there is some mistake. The only other sound's the sweep Of easy wind and downy flake. The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.

SHIFTS Rarely does a poet begin and end the poetic experience in the same place. Discovery of a poet’s understanding of an experience is critical to the understanding of a poem. Trace the feelings of the speaker from the beginning to the end, paying particular attention to the conclusion.   Look for the following to find shifts: 1. Key words (but, yet, however, although) 2. Punctuation (dashes, periods, colons, ellipsis) 3. Stanza division 4. Changes in line or stanza length or both 5. Irony (sometimes irony hides shifts) 6. Effect of structure on meaning 7. Changes in sound (rhyme) may indicate changes in meaning 8. Changes in diction (slang to formal language)

"I'm nobody! Who are you?" by Emily Dickinson I'm nobody! Who are you? Are you nobody, too? Then there's a pair of us — don't tell! They'd banish us, you know. How dreary to be somebody! How public, like a frog To tell your name the livelong day To an admiring bog! To interrupt the flow

TITLE Examine the title again, this time on an interpretive level.

THEME   Identify the theme by recognizing the human experience, motivation, or condition suggested by the poem. “Fire and Ice” by Robert Frost Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what I've tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice, 5 I think I know enough of hate To say that for destruction ice Is also great And would suffice.