Poetry Analysis Using TPCASTT

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Poetry Analysis Using TPCASTT

• English I Pre-AP

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Getting Started

• This is a process to help you organize your
  analysis of poetry.
• We have already learned the vocabulary, now its
  time to put it into practice!
• Together, we are going to analyze poetry using
  TPCASTT.
• You have a note sheet that looks like this

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You will write down everything that is bolded
and underlined Nothing else
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T is for TITLE

• Analyze the title first.
• What do you predict this poem will be about?
• Write down your predictions about the poem based
  off the title.
• We will reflect on the title again after we have
  read the poem.
• The next step is often omitted, but it is the
  most important!!!!

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READ THE POEM!!!!
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P is for PARAPHRASE

• Paraphrasing is putting something in your own
  words.
• After reading the poem, rewrite it in your own
  words.
• Keep it short and sweet.

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C is for CONNOTATION

• Identify the figures of speech and sound effects
  of the poem.
• These are the poetry vocabulary we have already
  studied.
• These elements add to the meaning.

RHYME
diction
personification
simile
Allusion
implied metaphor
HYPERBOLE
direct metaphor
Paradox
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A is for ATTITUDE

• Tone is the attitude of the speaker toward the
  subject of the poem.
• What type of tone/attitude does the author have?

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TONE WORDS

• Positive Tone
• emotions that evokes good feelings.
• Neutral Tone
• emotions that can either good or bad depending on
  the situation.
• Negative Tone
• emotions that evoke BAD feelings

NOTE If you dont know what the word means USE
YOUR DICTIONARY!!!
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S is for SHIFT

• If there is a change in time, tone, or speaker
  MARK IT!!!!!

• This should always be noted as this will also
  affect the meaning.

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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?
• Next, the biggie.

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T is for THEME

• As you already know, theme is the message or main
  idea the author wants you to get from the work.
• It does not make a judgment.
• example Dont do drugs is not a theme.
• It merely states something that is true to life
  and the human condition.

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How do I find the THEME?

• Look at the other parts of TPCASTT.
• What insight are all of these working together to
  convey?
• What is the poet trying to say about life?

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Woman with Flower

• I wouldnt coax the plant if I were you.
• Such watchful nurturing may do it harm.
• Let the soil rest from so much digging
• And wait until its dry before you water it.
• The leafs inclined to find it own direction
• Give it a chance to seek the sunlight
• for itself.
• Much growth is stunted by too careful prodding,
• Too eager tenderness.
• The things we love we have to learn to
• leave alone.

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• Identity by Julio Noboa Polanco
• Let them be as flowers,
• always watered, fed, guarded, admired,
• but harnessed to a pot of dirt.
• Id rather be a tall, ugly weed,
• clinging on cliffs, like an eagle
• wind-wavering above high, jagged rocks.
• To have broken through the surface of stone,
• to live, to feel exposed to the madness
• of the vast, eternal sky.
• To be swayed by the breezes of an ancient sea,
• Carrying my soul, my seed.
• Beyond the mountains of time or into the abyss of
  the bizarre.

Id rather be unseen, and if then shunned by
everyone, than to be a pleasant-smelling
flower, growing in clusters in the fertile
valley, where theyre praised handled, and
plucked by greedy, human hands Id rather smell
a musty, green stench Than of sweet fragrant
lilac. If I could stand alone, strong and
free, Id rather be a tall, ugly weed. Lack of
seeds, bits of night glistening on the grass.