Poetry Unit

I ask them to take a poem

and hold it up to the light

like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive

I say drop a mouse into a poem

and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem’s room

and feel the wall for a light switch.

I want them to water ski

across the surface of a poem

waving at the author’s name on the shore.

But all they want to do

is tie the poem to a chair with rope

and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose

to find out what it really means.

~Billy Collins

Introduction to

Poetry

TPCASTT A way to analyze poetry.

Title

Ponder the title before reading the

poem

Predict what the poem may be about

Paraphrase

Translate the poem into your own

words.

Focus on one syntactical unit at a

time, not necessarily on one line at a

time.

Or write a sentence or two for each

stanza of the poem.

Connotation

Contemplate the poem for meaning

beyond the literal.

What do words mean beyond the

obvious?

What are the implications, the hints,

the suggestions of these particular

word choices?

Devices (part of Connotation)

Examine any and all poetic devices.

How do they contribute to the

meaning, the effect, or both, of the

poem?

Especially note anything that is

repeated.

Attitude

Observe both the speaker’s and the

poet’s attitude (tone).

Diction, images, and details suggest

the speaker’s attitude and contribute

to understanding.

Shifts A poet rarely begins and ends the poetic experience in the same place.

Look for the following: Key words: but, yet, however, although

Punctuation: dashes, periods, colons, ellipsis

Stanza and/or line divisions: change in length

Irony

How the poem is built

Changes in sound

Changes in diction (slang to formal, positive to negative)

The crux

Title

Examine the title again, this time on

an interpretive level

Theme

In identifying theme, recognize the

human experience, motivation, or

condition suggested by the poem.