TP-CASTT: A Method for Poetry Analysis
T – Title - Examine the title before reading the poem. Consider allusions and connotations.
P – Paraphrase – Translate the poem into your own words. Resist the urge to jump to interpretation. A failure to understand what happens in the poem inevitably leads to misinterpretation. Look for syntactical units (complete sentences) rather than line-by-line units. Look for enjambment (run-on lines) and end-stopped lines.
C – Connotation – Examine the poem for meaning beyond the literal. Identify words that build emotional responses. Look at imagery, figurative language, sound devices, rhythm, and so on.
A – Attitude – Or tone. Examine both the speaker’s and the poet’s attitudes. Do not confuse the speaker (persona or character) with the poet (author). Look for: speaker’s attitude toward self, other characters, subject; attitudes of characters other than the speaker; attitudes of poet toward characters, subject, and reader.
S – Shifts – Note shifts (changes) in speaker and attitude. Shifts can be signaled by: transition words (but, yet, however, although); punctuation (dashes, periods, colons, ellipsis); stanza divisions; changes in line/stanza length; irony (sometimes irony disguises a shift); a change in diction; a change in sound (rhyme, rhythm, sound devices).
T – Title – Examine the title again, this time on an interpretive level.
T – Theme – First list what the poem is about (subjects), then determine what the poet is saying about each of those subjects. Remember, theme must be expressed as a complete sentence with a universal message.
T – Title - Examine the title before reading the poem. Consider allusions and connotations.
P – Paraphrase – Translate the poem into your own words. Resist the urge to jump to interpretation. A failure to understand what happens in the poem inevitably leads to misinterpretation. Look for syntactical units (complete sentences) rather than line-by-line units. Look for enjambment (run-on lines) and end-stopped lines.
C – Connotation – Examine the poem for meaning beyond the literal. Identify words that build emotional responses. Look at imagery, figurative language, sound devices, rhythm, and so on.
A – Attitude – Or tone. Examine both the speaker’s and the poet’s attitudes. Do not confuse the speaker (persona or character) with the poet (author). Look for: speaker’s attitude toward self, other characters, subject; attitudes of characters other than the speaker; attitudes of poet toward characters, subject, and reader.
S – Shifts – Note shifts (changes) in speaker and attitude. Shifts can be signaled by: transition words (but, yet, however, although); punctuation (dashes, periods, colons, ellipsis); stanza divisions; changes in line/stanza length; irony (sometimes irony disguises a shift); a change in diction; a change in sound (rhyme, rhythm, sound devices).
T – Title – Examine the title again, this time on an interpretive level.
T – Theme – First list what the poem is about (subjects), then determine what the poet is saying about each of those subjects. Remember, theme must be expressed as a complete sentence with a universal message.
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