Name:_____________________________________________________
Period:____________
TP-CASTT
Title: What predictions can you
make from the title? What are your
initial thoughts about the poem?
What might be the theme of the
poem?
Paraphrase: Rewrite the poem in
your own words.
Connotation: Write the connotative
or interpretive meaning of the poem.
What’s below the surface? What is the
connotative meaning of the poem?
Find examples of imagery, metaphors,
similes, etc. and elaborate on their
connotative meanings.
Something or someone is digging up a gravesite. First thought about
this poem is that this might be a figurative poem. The theme might be
favoritism or love.
Someone, who eventually is a woman, is questioning, trying to find out
who or what is digging up their grave. She asks if it is her husband
planting flowers, if it is her next of kin, or her enemy being
mischievous. She soon finds out it is her pet dog that is digging up her
grave. The dog dug a hole for its bone and forgot she was buried there.
A dead person wants to know who or what is digging at their grave,
basically. In the poem, “death’s gin” is defined as death’s trap. The
poet uses dashes and there is conversation going on with the dead; the
poem uses great personification. The poet uses words and phrases such
as “nay” and “prodding sly.” He also uses inverse sentencing.
Attitude: What attitude does the poet The poet’s attitude towards the subject of the poem is kind of
have toward the subject of the poem?
whimsical. The poet is not sad because of death, he is more positive
Find and list examples that illustrate
about it.
the tone and mood of the poem.
Shift: Is there a shift in the
tone/attitude of the poem? Where is
the shift? What does the tone shift to?
Title: Revisit the title and explain
any new insights it provides to the
meaning of the poem. Discuss the
meaning on an interpretive level.
Theme: What is the overall theme of
the poem? What is the poet saying?
The shift came in stanza four. Instead of being curious throughout the
whole poem, the tone changed to relieved or happy.
The title is a mere question; nothing more than just that. Later on in the
poem, the woman finds out that her dog is burying a bone.
I believe the overall theme of the poem is loyalty. It may also be love.