Poetry Analysis

Using the TP-CASTT Method

What is TP CASTT?
 An acronym of steps used to analyze
poetry. The results of TPCASTT can
be used to write an essay.
 The TPCASTT process is comprised
of 7 steps which should be completed
in the order given.
 Step 1: Title
Goal- Attempt to predict what the poem will be about

 Ponder the title before reading the poem.

 Questions to ask yourself:

◦ What predictions can I make about the poem
◦ What feelings can I connect to the poem’s title?
Write your response in a complete sentence
 Step 2: Paraphrase
Goal- Translate the poem, line by line, into your own words.

 Paraphrase the literary meaning/plot of

the poem. A true understanding of the
poem must evolve from comprehension
or what’s going on in the poem.
 Step 3: Connotation
Goal- Contemplate the poem for meaning beyond the literal meaning.

 Inpoetry, connotation indicates that

analyst should examine any and all poetic
devices, focusing on how such devices
contribute to the meaning, the effect, or
both of a poem.
 Consider imagery, figurative language,
symbolism, diction, point of view, and
sound devices
 You will link these considerations to the
overall meaning.
 Step 4: Attitude
Goal- Observe both the speaker’s and the poet’s attitude

 Having examined the poem’s devices

and clues closely, now explore the
multiple attitudes that may be present
in the poem.
 Here you will describe the tone of the
author and/or speaker.Recall how this
is done…
 Step 5: Shifts
Goal-Note shifts in the speaker’s attitudes or emotions.

 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 the 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)
 Step 6: Title
Goal-Examine the title again, this time on an interpretive level

 Questions to ask yourself:

◦ Why is the title “_____?”
◦ What does this mean?
 Step 7: Theme
Goal- Determine what the author is saying and wants me to learn and feel after reading the
poem.

 Identify the theme by recognizing the

human experience, motivation, or condition
suggested by the poem
 This step, within itself, has a system:
1) Summarize the plot
2) List the subject (s) of the poem (moving from
literal subjects to abstract concepts such as
war, death, discovery)
3) Determine what the poet is saying about each
subject. Write a complete sentence, making a
statement and point about the subject (s).
Example of theme explication using the poem
“Janet Walking”
Plot: In “Janet Walking” Janet awakens one morning and
runs to greet her pet chicken only to discover that a
bee had stung and killed the bird. The discovery
desolates Janet to such a degree that her father
cannot comfort her.

  Subjects:
1. A child’s first experience of death
2. loss of a pet
3. innocence

  Themes:
1. Children become aware of the inevitability of death
and are transformed by the knowledge.
2. The death of innocence is inevitable
Elements Of
Poetry
FORM
SOUND DEVISES
IMAGERY
MOOD/TONE
THEME
 Poetry:
Poetry is a form of writing that uses not only
words, But also form, Patterns of sound, Imagery,
And figurative language To convey the message.
Any Poem will include some or all of these
elements.
 FORM:
•
A poem’s form is its
appearance. Poems are
divided into lines. Many poems,
especially longer ones,
may also be divided into
groups of lines called stanzas.
• Stanzas function like
paragraphs in a story. Each
one contains a single idea or
takes the idea one step further.
 What is the purpose of the first
stanza of “The Highwayman”?
 The wind was a torrent of darkness,
among the gusty trees.
 The moon was a ghostly galleon
tossed upon cloudy seas.
 The road was a ribbon of moonlight
over the purple moor,
 And the highwayman came
riding - Riding – riding –
 The highwayman came riding up to the
old inn door.
 Sets the scene
 SOUND Devises

Some poems use techniques of

sound such as rhythm, rhyme,
and alliteration.
 Rhythm:
• The pattern of beats or Try beating out the rhythm with a finger
stresses in a poem. as you read these lines.

Poets use patterns of She was a child andI was a child,

stressed and unstressed In thisking domby thesea;
But weloved with a love that was
syllables to create a
more thanlove –I and myAnn abelLee;
regular rhythm.
 RHYME:

The repetition of the same or similar sounds,

usually in stressed syllables at the ends of lines,
but sometimes within a line.

There are strange thingsdone

in the midnightsun

By the men who moil for gold;

 Rhyme Scheme
The rhyming pattern that is created at
the end of lines of poetry.

Mary had a little lamb, A

Its fleece as white as snow. B
And everywhere that Mary went, C
The lamb was sure to go. B

If the poem does not have a rhyme

scheme it is considered to be a
free verse poem.
 ALLITERATION:
The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginnings
of words.

S evens ilvers wanss wams ilentlys eaward.

P eterP iperp ick ap eck ofp ickledp eppers.

 Onomatopoei
a
Words that are used to represent
particular sounds.

Crash Boo
Bang m
Zip
 Repetition
The repeating of a particular sound
devise to create an effect.

 Tocreate emphasis, a poet may

repeat words or lines within the poem.
 Meter
 Meter is the number of feet in a line of poetry;
poetry lines are divided into groups of syllables
called feet (or “foot” in the singular).
 Count the feet by finding the number of stressed
syllables.
 Usually there is one stressed syllabus per foot,
although a spondee has two.
 Ex. Sometimes/ too hot/ the eye/ of heaven/
 shines 
(William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 18”) has five
stressed syllables and five feet.
 Meter is usually expressed by the number of
feet in the line and the stress pattern: one
foot is monometer, two is dimeter, three is
trimeter, etc. Iambic pentameter is the most
common meter in English poetry. It has five
feet and each foot has one unstressed
syllable followed by a stressed syllable:
 Ex. Shakespeare’s line form “Sonnet 18,” “Shall I /
comPARE /thee TO/ a SUM/mers DAY?”
 IMAGERY
Which senses does the following
Poets use words that stanza appeal to?
appeal to the reader’s
senses of sight, sound, Back, he spurred like a madman, shouting
touch, taste, and curses to the sky,
smell. With the white road smoking behind him
and his rapier brandished high.

Sight?
Sound?
 FIGURES OF SPEECH:

Figures of speech are a special kind

of imagery.

They create pictures by making

comparisons.
 SIMILE
A comparison usinglike oras.

She was as pretty as red rose,

 METAPHOR:

Describes one thing as if it were

another.

The moon was a ghostly galleon

tossed upon cloudy seas.
Extended Metaphor

A metaphor that extends throughout

the entire poem instead of just a few
lines of the poem.
 Mother to Son By: Langston
Hughes

Well, son, I’ll tell you:

Life for me ain’t been no crystalstair. It’s had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor – Bare.
But all the time
I’se been a-climbin on, And reachin’ landin’s, And turnin’
corners,
And sometimes goin’ in the dark Where there ain’t been no
light. So, boy, don’t you turn back.
Don’t you set down on the stops ‘Cause you finds it kinder
hard. don’t you fall now –
For I’se still goin’, honey,
I’se still climbin’, and life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
PERSONIFICATION:

Gives human characteristics to something

nonhuman.

…and the stars o’erhead were

dancing heel and toe…
In “The Highwayman,” images create a picture of Tim.

Which figures are used to describe hiseyes

and hishair ?
 His eyes were hollows of madness,
his hair like moldy hay,
 eyes : hollows of madness : Metaphor

 hair : moldy hay : Simile

 Which figures are used to
describe the following?
• My love is like a • Simile
rose.

• Our love bloomed in • Personification

the garden.

• The rose tipped its • Personification

head as we passed
by.
 Mood/Tone

The feelings the author’s word choices

give the poem.
Mood (or tone) is the overall feeling or
emotional tone of a poem created by the
specific combinations of words, sounds,
rhythm, and imagery.
 THEME:
The theme of a poem is its central or main
idea.

To identify a poem’s theme, ask yourself

what ideas or insights about life or human
nature you have found in the poem.