Tcastt Essay

289 Words2 Pages
TP CASTT: A Method for Poetry Analysis I. TITLE Examine the title before reading the poem. Look for initial meanings and connotations. If your poem has NO title, you must still explain why. II. PARAPHRASE Translate the poem into your own words (literal/denotation). Resist the urge to jump to interpretation. A failure to understand what happens literally inevitably leads to an interpretive misunderstanding. Look for the following: Syntactical units complete sentences rather than line by line. Enjambment, vs. end stopped lines III. CONNOTATION Examine the poem for meaning beyond the literal. Notice: Diction Imagery (especially metaphor, simile, personification – Identify and explain) Symbolism – is there any? Explain. Irony paradox, understatement, oxymoron Allusions Effect of sound devices (alliteration, onomatopoeia, assonance, consonance) Rhyme IV. ATTITUDE TONE Examine both the speaker's and the poet's attitudes. Remember don't confuse the author with the persona. Characterize attitude using solid tone vocabulary. Look for Speaker's attitude toward self, other characters, and the subject, Attitudes of characters other than the speaker; Poet's attitude toward speaker, other characters, subject, and finally toward the reader. V. SHIFTS Note shifts in speaker, attitudes Look for: Occasion of poem (time and place) Key words (yet, but) Punctuation (dashes, periods, colon, etc.) Stanza divisions Changes in line and/or stanza length Irony (sometimes irony hides shifts) Effect of structure on meaning VI. TITLE Examine the title again, this time on an interpretive level. VII. THEME First list what the poem is about (subjects); then determine what the poet is saying about each of those subjects (theme). Remember, theme must be expressed as a complete sentence.
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