Poetry Analysis

T is for TITLE Analyze the title first. What do you predict this poem will be about? Write down your predictions. We will reflect on the title again after we have read the poem. The next step is often omitted, but it is the most important!!!!

NOW READ THE POEM

Paraphrasing is putting something in your own words. After reading the poem, rewrite it in your own words. This may be three sentences or a page, depending on the particular poem. P is for PARAPHRASE

Analyze the figures of speech and sound effects of the poem. These are the poetry vocabulary we have already studied. These elements add to the meaning. C is for CONNOTATION

Tone is the attitude of the speaker toward the subject of the poem. A is for ATTITUDE

If there is a change in… –Time –Tone –Mood –Speaker This should always be noted as this will also affect the meaning. S is for SHIFT

At this time, you should reconsider the title. Were you right in your predictions? What other meanings might the title have in light of your analysis? Next, the biggie…. T is for TITLE (again)

As you already know, theme is the general insight into life conveyed by the author through his/her work. It does not make a judgment. example: “Dont do drugs” is not a theme. It merely states something that is true to life and the human condition. T is for THEME

Look at the other parts of TPCASTT. What insight are all of these working together to convey? What is the poet trying to say about life? How do I find the THEME ?

TPCASTT EXAMPLE Dreams Hold fast to dreams For if dreams die Life is a broken-winged bird That cannot fly. Hold fast to dreams For when dreams go Life is a barren field Frozen with snow. -Langston Hughes

TPCASTT EXAMPLE Title – The poem will be about dreams. It will probably be about dreams as goals, but it could also be about dreams people have while asleep. Paraphrase – Hold on tightly to dreams Because if dreams die Life is like an injured bird That cannot fly. Hold on tightly to dreams Because when dreams are lost Life is like a field with nothing in it That is frozen with snow

TPCASTT EXAMPLE Connotation – Personification- dreams die, dreams go Personifying dreams make the dreams seem important. Dreams dying makes it seem like a dream is lost is lost forever. Metaphor & Imagery- life is a broken winged bird, life is a barren field Both of these metaphors have negative connotations. Losing a dream can have drastically negative results on life. Point of View- The poem is in 2nd person. The speaker is talking directly to the reader. End rhymes- die, fly and go, snow Repetition- Hold fast to dreams Alliteration- dreams die ** These sound devices give the poem a dreamy and melancholic sound and mood.

TPCASTT EXAMPLE Attitude/Tone- The speaker - The speaker could be male or female, but he/she sounds wise, so he/she is probably an adult, someone who has seen the negative effects of lost dreams. The audience- The audience is general because everyone has and needs dreams. The tone (attitude)- The speaker’s tone is cautionary (talking directly to the reader) and somewhat melancholy. Shifts - This poem has only two sentences. There aren’t any shifts, but the poem does end abruptly with a strong, negative image.

TPCASTT EXAMPLE Title - The title is very indicative of what the poem will be about. The poem is about dreams and continuing to dream, and the title represents that clearly. Theme - The subject is the importance of dreams. The theme or message is “A life without dreams is empty.”

Modern/Contemporary: T.S. Eliot William Butler Yeats W.H. Auden Romantic: William Wordsworth Samuel Taylor Coleridge George Gordon, Lord Byron Percy Bysshe Shelley Victorian: A.E. Housman Alfred, Lord Tennyson Elizabeth Barrett Browning POETS FROM THE ERAS

If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too: If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or being hated don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise; If you can dream---and not make dreams your master; If you can think---and not make thoughts your aim, If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same:. If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools; If - by Rudyard Kipling

If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings, And never breathe a word about your loss: If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!" If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with Kings---nor lose the common touch, If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much: If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And---which is more---you'll be a Man, my son!