Historia y Literatura Estadounidense –

Prof. Juan Pablo Duboué Iuvaro

Analyzing poetry through the TPCASTT method

Through the TPCASTT we can analyze poetry in an organised way, taking into
consideration several important items that should be considered whenever reading a
poem.
TPCASTT is an acronym that stands for:
Title
Paraphrase
Connotation
Attitude
Shift
Title (revisited)
Theme

Now, let’s see what each of these items represents:

Title: Before you even think about reading the poem or trying to analyze it, speculate on
what you think the poem might be about, based on the title. Often time authors conceal
meaning in the title and give clues as well. Jot down what you think this poem will be
about.
Paraphrase: Before you begin to think about meaning or try to analyze the poem, don't
overlook the literal meaning. One of the biggest problems that students often make in
poetry analysis is jumping to conclusions before understanding what is taking place in
the poem. When you paraphrase a poem, write in your own words exactly what
happens in the poem. Look at the number of sentences in the poem—your paraphrase
should have exactly the same number. This technique is especially helpful for poems
written in the 17th and 19th centuries. Sometimes your teacher may allow you to
summarize what happens in the poem. Make sure that you understand the difference
between a paraphrase and a summary.
Connotation: Although this term usually refers solely to the emotional overtones of
word choice, for this approach the term refers to any and all poetic devices, focusing
on how such devices contribute to the meaning, the effect, or both of a poem. You may
consider imagery, figures of speech (simile, metaphor, personification, symbolism, etc),
diction, point of view, and sound devices (alliteration, onomatopoeia, rhythm, and
rhyme). It is not necessary that you identify all the poetic devices within the poem. The
ones you do identify should be seen as a way of supporting the conclusions you are
going to draw about the poem.
Historia y Literatura Estadounidense –
Prof. Juan Pablo Duboué Iuvaro

Attitude: Having examined the poem's devices and clues closely, you are now ready to
explore the multiple attitudes that may be present in the poem. Examination of diction,
images, and details suggests the speaker's attitude and contributes to understanding.
You may refer to the list of words on Tone that will help you. Remember that usually the
tone or attitude cannot be named with a single word.
Shift: Rarely does a poem begin and end the poetic experience in the same place. As
is true for most us, the poet's understanding of an experience is a gradual realization,
and the poem is a reflection of that understanding or insight. Watch for the following
keys to shifts:
• key words, (but, yet, however, although)
• punctuation (dashes, periods, colons, ellipsis)
• stanza divisions
• changes in line or stanza length or both
• irony
• changes in sound that may indicate changes in meaning
• changes in diction
Title (revisited): Now look at the title again, but this time on a deeper level. What new
insight does the title provide in understanding the poem?
Theme: What is the poem saying about the human experience, motivation, or
condition? What subject or subjects does the poem address? What do you learn about
those subjects? What idea does the poet want you take away with you concerning these
subjects? Remember that the theme of any work of literature is stated in a complete
sentence.

Let’s now concentrate on the different poetic devices that’ll help us when analyzing
poetry
Sounds of Words:
Alliteration: Repeated consonant sounds at the beginning of words placed near each
other, usually on the same or adjacent lines. A somewhat looser definition is that it is
the use of the same consonant in any part of adjacent words.
Example: fast and furious
Example: Peter and Andrew patted the pony at Ascot
Historia y Literatura Estadounidense –
Prof. Juan Pablo Duboué Iuvaro

In the second definition, both P and T in the example are reckoned as alliteration. It is
noted that this is a very obvious device and needs to be handled with great restraint,
except in specialty forms such as limerick, cinquain, and humorous verse.
Assonance: Repeated vowel sounds in words placed near each other, usually on the
same or adjacent lines. These should be in sounds that are accented, or stressed,
rather than in vowel sounds that are unaccented.
Example: He’s a bruisin’ loser
In the second example above, the short A sound in Andrew, patted, and Ascot would be
assonant.
Consonance: Repeated consonant sounds at the ending of words placed near each
other, usually on the same or adjacent lines. These should be in sounds that are
accented, or stressed, rather than in vowel sounds that are unaccented. This produces
a pleasing kind of near-rhyme.
Example: boats into the past
Example: cool soul
Repetition: The purposeful re-use of words and phrases for an effect. Sometimes,
especially with longer phrases that contain a different key word each time, this is called
parallelism. It has been a central part of poetry in many cultures. Many of the Psalms
use this device as one of their unifying elements.
Example: I was glad; so very, very glad.
Example: Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward…
…
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley’d and thunder’d…
Rhyme: This is the one device most commonly associated with poetry by the general
public. Words that have different beginning sounds but whose endings sound alike,
including the final vowel sound and everything following it, are said to rhyme.
Example: time, slime, mime
Double rhymes include the final two syllables. Example: revival, arrival, survival
Triple rhymes include the final three syllables. Example: greenery, machinery, scenery
Historia y Literatura Estadounidense –
Prof. Juan Pablo Duboué Iuvaro

A variation which has been used effectively is called slant rhyme, or half rhyme. If only
the final consonant sounds of the words are the same, but the initial consonants and the
vowel sounds are different, then the rhyme is called a slant rhyme or half rhyme. When
this appears in the middle of lines rather than at the end, it is called consonance.
Example: soul, oil, foul; taut, sat, knit
Another variation which is occasionally used is called near rhyme. If the final vowel
sounds are the same, but the final consonant sounds are slightly different, then the
rhyme is called a near rhyme.
Example: fine, rhyme; poem, goin’
Less effective but sometimes used are sight rhymes. Words which are spelled the
same (as if they rhymed), but are pronounced differently are called sight rhymes or eye
rhymes.
Example: enough, cough, through, bough
Meanings of Words:
Allusion: A brief reference to some person, historical event, work of art, or Biblical or
mythological situation or character.
Irony: A contradictory statement or situation to reveal a reality different from what
appears to be true.
Example: Wow, thanks for the expensive gift...let’s see: did it come with a Fun Meal or
the Burger King equivalent?
Metaphor: A direct comparison between two unlike things, stating that one is the other
or does the action of the other.
Example: He’s a zero. Example: Her fingers danced across the keyboard.
Oxymoron: A combination of two words that appear to contradict each other.
Example: a pointless point of view; bittersweet, clearly confused
Personification: Attributing human characteristics to an inanimate object, animal, or
abstract idea.
Example: The days crept by slowly, sorrowfully.
Simile: A direct comparison of two unlike things using “like” or “as.”
Example: He’s as dumb as an ox.
Example: Her eyes are like comets.
Historia y Literatura Estadounidense –
Prof. Juan Pablo Duboué Iuvaro

Symbol: An ordinary object, event, animal, or person to which we have attached

extraordinary meaning and significance – a flag to represent a country, a lion to
represent courage, a wall to symbolize separation.
Example: A small cross by the dangerous curve on the road reminded all of Johnny’s
death.
The Images of Words:
Imagery: The use of vivid language to generate ideas and/or evoke mental images, not
only of the visual sense, but of sensation and emotion as well. While most commonly
used in reference to figurative language, imagery can apply to any component of a
poem that evoke sensory experience and emotional response, and also applies to the
concrete things so brought to mind. Poetry works it magic by the way it uses words to
evoke “images” that carry depths of meaning. The poet’s carefully described
impressions of sight, sound, smell, taste and touch can be transferred to the thoughtful
reader through imaginative use and combinations of diction. In addition to its more
tangible initial impact, effective imagery has the potential to tap the inner wisdom of the
reader to arouse meditative and inspirational responses. Related images are often
clustered or scattered throughout a work, thus serving to create a particular mood or
tone. Images of disease, corruption, and death, for example, are recurrent patterns
shaping our perceptions of Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
Examples:
• Sight: Smoke mysteriously puffed out from the clown’s ears.
• Sound: Tom placed his ear tightly against the wall; he could hear a faint but distinct
thump thump thump.
• Touch: The burlap wall covering scraped against the little boy’s cheek.
• Taste: A salty tear ran across onto her lips.
• Smell: Cinnamon! That’s what wafted into his nostrils.
Tone, Mood: The means by which a poet reveals attitudes and feelings, in the style of
language or expression of thought used to develop the subject. Certain tones include
not only irony and satire, but may be loving, condescending, bitter, pitying, fanciful,
solemn, and a host of other emotions and attitudes. Tone can also refer to the overall
mood of the poem itself, in the sense of a pervading atmosphere intended to influence
the readers’ emotional response and foster expectations of the conclusion. Another use
of tone is in reference to pitch or to the demeanor of a speaker as interpreted through
inflections of the voice; in poetry, this is conveyed through the use of connotation,
diction, figures of speech, rhythm and other elements of poetic construction.