1. TPCASTT

2. TPCASTT TPCASTT is a method for organizing your poetry analysis.
TPCASTT should not guide your answer, only your analysis!

3. TITLE
First, look at the title and make some guesses about the poem. Do you think the title is significant? What might it mean? What do you expect to read based on this title?

4. Important Step
Before moving on, read the poem!!!!!

5. Paraphrase
You have now read the poem in its entirety, so you’re ready to paraphrase the subject of the poem (in your own words).
Paraphrase sentence by sentence or stanza by stanza, depending on the poem’s structure.

6. Connotation Simile Onomatopoeia Alliteration Diction
This is where you put your literature skills to work. Look at the author’s word choice, images, and use of literary devices. What meaning can you pick up from these choices?
Metaphor
Diction
Simile
Alliteration
Onomatopoeia
Hyperbole
Personification

7. Attitude
Attitude refers to author’s feeling about the subject. You pick up the author’s attitude through their choices in diction, images, and how they deal with the subject overall.

8. Shift(s)
The key to unlocking a poem’s meaning is often in the shift, or shifts.
Shifts are those places where a poem takes a sudden turn; maybe it’s a change in tone, or diction, or overall meaning.
Whatever the shift, pay attention to it. It will lead you to meaning.

9. Title Revisited
Having read the poem, so you have new insights or thoughts about the significance of the title?

10. Theme Last but not least, the theme.
As you know, theme is bigger than the poem itself. It is the overall meaning or message of the poem that can apply to all (or most) people. It is the universal message wrapped up inside the poem.

11. TPCASTT
Now we are going to apply this method to several poems, from varied time periods and authors.