TPCASTT T is for Title While its generally true that you shouldnt judge a book by its cover it is perfectly okay to judge a poem by its title Take a look at the title and try to predict what the poem might be about Remember the poet chose that title for a reasonso what IS that reaso ID: 432507
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Slide1
A sample analysis
TP-CASTTSlide2
T is for Title
While it’s generally true that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, it is perfectly okay to judge a poem by its title! Take a look at the title and try to predict what the poem might be about. Remember, the poet chose that title for a reason—so what IS that reason??Slide3
P is for Paraphrase
Paraphrasing is an important skill. The first step in analyzing ANYTHING you read is putting what you read into words that you understand. When you paraphrase, you are restating the literal meaning of the poem in your own words.Slide4
C is for connotation
Remember: words can have more than one meaning. Reread the poem and look for deeper, extended meanings. Be sure to consider not just diction, but also any poetic or literary devices, as these are often clues to the poet’s meaning. Just as the poet chose the title intentionally, those images, metaphors, symbols, etc. didn’t show up by accident! What do they MEAN?Slide5
A is for attitude
Another word for attitude is tone. Think about how you use tone of voice to communicate more information than just words when you are speaking. How is the poet’s tone conveyed through the words they choose? Which words in particular help to establish this tone?Slide6
S is for shifts
Notice any changes or shifts in speaker or attitude. Some things to consider when looking for shifts are:
Key transition words (yet, although, however)
Punctuation
Stanza divisions
Changes in length (to lines or stanzas)
Changes in rhyme
Changes in dictionSlide7
T is for title (again)
Now that you have read and analyzed the poem in depth, go back and reconsider the title. Does it have any new significance?Slide8
T is for theme
Lastly, consider the poem’s larger meaning or message. What insight is the poem giving into the human experience? Remember to phrase this as a thematic statement, not just a concept.Slide9
A Poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay
What's this of death, from you who never will die?
Think you the wrist that fashioned you in clay,
The thumb that set the hollow just that way
In your full throat and lidded the long eye
So roundly from the forehead, will let lie
Broken, forgotten, under foot some day
Your unimpeachable body, and so slay
The work he most had been remembered by?
I tell you this: whatever of dust to dust
Goes down, whatever of ashes may return
To its essential self in its own season,
Loveliness such as yours will not be lost,
But, cast in bronze upon his very urn,
Make known him Master, and for what good reason.Slide10
Title
This poem does not have a title, so, as is the case with other poems without titles, we refer to it by its first line, “What’s this of death, from you who will never die?” At first glance, I predict that in this poem the speaker is addressing an inanimate object, because he/she says it will never die. Maybe the poem’s theme will have something to do with mortality. Or, maybe it’s about mental illness, if the speaker is addressing a rock or a desk.Slide11
Paraphrase
Why do you, who will never die, speak of death?
Do you think the wrist that made you from clay,
The thumb that carefully placed the indentation
In your full throat and put lids on your wide eyes
Beneath that forehead, will allow to lie
Dead, forgotten, underground someday
Your impeccable body, and in doing so destroy
His most famous creation
?
This I tell you: whatever dying
Occurs, whatever of your remains return
To the elements from which they originated in due time,
Your beauty will not be lost;
Rather, your image will be cast in bronze upon the urn of the
creator Himself,
Illustrating the good reason he is known as God. Slide12
Connotation
The statue being molded from clay seems to be an allusion to the creation of man in the bible and other creation narratives, so that starts me thinking that the sculptor is a metaphor for God (maybe why the “Master” at the end of the poem is capitalized) or another higher being, and the audience is an actual human being. The reference to “ashes” also makes me think we are talking “ashes to ashes, dust to dust” like with a human being.
The use of “unimpeachable” to describe the audience’s body, as well as the focus on the eyes and throat, makes me think the audience is the speaker’s partner.Slide13
Attitude/Tone
The speaker is serious and concerned. The poet does not seem to be mocking the speaker’s sentiment. It seems as if the poet shares the speaker’s belief in the power of art.Slide14
Shifts
This poem, like other Italian/Petrarchan sonnets, shifts between the eighth and ninth lines, between the octave and the sestet. If I were not a sonnet master, I would recognize the shift by the fact that the speaker changes from asking to answering, also possibly due to the declaration, “I tell you this:” Slide15
Title (II)
Now that I know this poem is addressed to an actual person, the first line changes for me, and it turns out the individual’s mortality the poem centers around is that of the audience, not the speaker.Slide16
Theme
Because the speaker claims that his or her partner will be immortalized by his or her likeness being cast in bronze, and because the poem does so in its own way by focusing on the physical attributes of the individual being addressed, one possible meaning might be that “One way that mortality can be overcome is through art.”