TP-CASTT Poetry Analysis
TITLE: Consider the title and make a prediction about what the poem is about.
Considering the title I predict that the poem will be about painting a water lily, and the steps required to do so.
PARAPHRASE: Translate the poem line by line into your own words on a literal level. Look for complete thoughts (sentences may be inverted) and look up unfamiliar words.
CONNOTATION: Examine the poem for the meaning beyond the literal. Look for figurative language, imagery, and sound elements.
The poem has many traces of figurative language from personification to imagery to metaphors and hyperboles. One example is the dragonfly is personified “that eats meat, that bullets by.” Also, nature is personified “There are battle shouts and death cries everywhere hereabouts”. An example of imagery is the first line of the poem “a green level of lily leaves roofs the pond’s chamber and paves”
ATTITUDE/TONE: Notice the speaker’s tone and attitude. Humor? Sarcasm? Awe?
The speaker carries himself with an informative, descriptive observant tone. The artists must capture the natural world. The poet gives detailed instructions.
SHIFTS: Note any shifts or changes in speaker or attitude. Look for key words, time change, punctuation.
One shift is that, Everything in Nature is chaotic, except the water lilies frozen in both the natural world and also in the paintings.
TITLE: Examine the title again, this time on an interpretive level.
The title on interpretive level is that in order to paint a water lily, one must know the deepness and intricacy of a waterlily and its ecosystem.
THEME: Briefly state in your own words what the poem is about (subject), then what the poet is saying about the subject (theme).
The theme can be nature can be both peaceful and violent if viewed from a different perspective, when a full understanding of the subject is gained, it will be easier to paint, in order to paint correctly.
