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TP-CASTT Process
Okigbo’s “Come Thunder” (Connotation part of TP-
CASTT to pick apart the poem
Journal #4 about the culture described in Okigbo’s
“Come Thunder:” how do the people live? What do they depend on? How do they make their living?
How do they worship?
Is it fair to make judgments about a culture based on a literary work? Why or why not? Does literature have limitations in portraying culture? Discuss the style of the novel
Review what happened—the novel isn’t chronological, but sometimes has intersections where he turns off to discuss something
Homework: Read chapters 4-6

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Title 1 : Think about the title before reading the poem.
Paraphrase: Translate the poem into your own words sentence by sentence (not line by line). Note any pattern or progression (general to specific, night to day, chronological, external to internal…).
Connotation: Meaning beyond the literal. How do poetic devices contribute to meaning and or effect? (Imagery, simile, metaphor, personification, symbolism, diction, point of view, etc.; sound devices: alliteration, onomatopoeia, rhythm, rhyme)
Attitude: Who is the speaker? Who might be his/her audience? What is the poet’s tone? The speaker’s tone?
Shifts: Are there any shifts in speaker or attitude?
Title 2 : What does the title mean on an interpretive level?
Theme: What message is the poet trying to get across?

Now that the triumphant march has entered the last street corners,
Remember, O dancers, the thunder among the clouds ...
Now that laughter, broken in two, hangs tremulous between the teeth,
Remember, O dancers, the lightning beyond the earth ...
The drowsy heads of the pods in barren farmlands witness it,
The homesteads abandoned in this century’s brush fire witness it:
The myriad eyes of deserted corn cobs in burning barns witness it:
Magic birds with the miracle of lightning flash on their feathers ...
The smell of blood already floats in the lavender-mist of the afternoon.
The death sentence lies in ambush along the corridors of power;
And a great fearful thing already tugs at the cable of the open air,
A nebula immense and immeasurable, a night of deep waters--
An iron dream unnamed and unprintable, a path of stone.
The arrows of God tremble at the gates of light,
The drums of curfew pander to a dance of death;
And the secret thing in its heaving
Threatens with iron mask
The last lighted torch of the century
...