TPCASTT
Title: Examine the title before reading the poem. Consider connotations.
Paraphrase: Translate the poem into your own words (literal/denotation). Resist the urge to jump to interpretations. A failure to understand what happens literally inevitably leads to an interpretive misunderstanding.
Look for: Syntactical units (complete sentences rather than line by line)
Enjambment vs. end-stopped lines
Connotation: Examine the poem for meaning beyond the literal.
Look for: Diction
Imagery (especially metaphor, simile, personification)
Symbolism
Irony—paradox, understatement, oxymoron
Allusions
Effect of sound devices (alliteration, onomatopoeia, assonance, consonance, rhyme)
Attitude: Tone—Examine both the speaker’s and the poet’s attitudes. Remember; don’t confuse the author with the persona.
Look for: Speaker’s attitude toward self, other characters, and the subject
Attitudes of characters other than speaker
Poet’s attitude toward speaker, other characters, subject and finally toward the reader
Shift: Note shifts in speaker, attitudes
Look for: Occasion of poem (time and place)
Key words (but, yet)
Punctuation (dashes, periods, colons….)
Stanza divisions
Changes in line and/or stanza length
Irony (sometimes irony hides shifts)
Effect of structure on meaning
Title: Examine the title again, this time on an interpretive level
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 in complete sentences.
And, an effective complete sentence is NOT:
The theme is love.
What ABOUT love is the author trying to communicate to the reader?
Tone Vocabulary
Positive tone/attitude words
Lighthearted hopeful exuberant enthusiastic complimentary
Confident cheery optimistic loving passionate
Amused elated sympathetic compassionate proud
Negative tone/attitude words
Anger:
Angry disgusted outraged accusing condemnatory
Furious wrathful bitter inflammatory irritated
Indignant threatening
Humor/Irony/Sarcasm:
Scornful disdainful contemptuous sarcastic cynical
Critical facetious patronizing satiric condescending
Sardonic mock-heroic bantering irreverent mock-serious
Taunting insolent pompous ironic flippant
Whimsical amused
Sorrow/Fear/Worry:
Somber elegiac melancholic sad disturbed
Mournful solemn serious apprehensive concerned
Fearful despairing gloomy sober foreboding
Hopeless staid resigned
Neutral tone/attitude words
Formal objective incredulous nostalgic ceremonial
Candid shocked reminiscent restrained clinical
Baffled sentimental detached objective disbelieving
Questioning urgent instructive matter-of-fact admonitory
Learned factual deductive informative authoritative