TPFASTT Poetry Analysis
Janane Tan
What is it?
TPFASTT stands for
Title- Anticipate meaning questions?
Paraphrase- What does it mean?
Figurative- How do they affect meaning?
Attitude- Analyze narrators tone
Shift- Note shift in tone, subject, diction and syntax
Title- Reanalyze title and figure out how the title plays a part in the poem?
Theme- What is the poem saying?
Poetry Analysis- Is to pretty much break down a poem (using TPFASTT) into all its important elements and explain how they work together to create an effect or reinforce a meaning.
When do you use it?
People typically use TPFASTT while analyzing a poem to understand it better, not only does analyzing the poem help the reader understand the poem better but it also allows the reader to connect with the speaker.
How do you use it?
Before you break the poem apart, identify its basic content. You should be able to summarize your poem. Creating a summary will focus your thoughts about the poem. Then using TPFASTT focus on the title firsts and then read the poem, after doing so focus on the tone and function used by the speaker. This will allow you to get a mood for the poem and understand how the speaker is feeling, then continue to analysis the poem for any shift in tone. After being able to understand the poem, it back to the title and then search for a theme.
Why do you use it?
Like I said previously in when do you use it? You may be required to do research in order to incorporate the opinion of literary critics into your own analysis. Or you may be asked to present only your own interpretation. In any case, before you write, you need a solid understanding of the poem or poems you’ll be analyzing.
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