Selma Abdulhai
TPCASTT for Mad Girl’s Love Song
By Sylvia Plath
TPCASTT: Poem Analysis Method: title, paraphrase, connotation, diction, attitude, tone, shift(s), title revisited
and theme
T
P
I think the Title of poem means:
The title of this poem means to me that a mad and angry girl is going to talking about a
guy that broke her heart and how it upsets her.
Paraphrase parts of the Poem
I close my eyes and the world doesn’t exist.
I open my eyes and the world comes alive again.
(I think you are a figment of my imagination.)
The American flag flies,
And darkness elapses.
I close my eyes and the world doesn’t exist.
I dreamed you seduced me to sleep with you
And sung to me and kissed me.
(I think you are a figment of my imagination.)
God leaves heaven, and hell freezes over:
The devil and his men leave hell.
I close my eyes and the world doesn’t exist.
I thought you would come back like you said,
But it’s been so long that I’ve forgotten your name.
(I think you are a figment of my imagination.)
I should have gone after a thunderbird;
At least you I know that they’ll come back every spring.
I close my eyes and the world doesn’t exist.
(I think you are a figment of my imagination.)
Connotation of some of the words—changing literal meaning to implied or associated values
C
We the speaker says that when she closes her eyes, the world drops dead, which of course
isn’t true, and she means that it is insignificant when unseen. And, “all is born again”,
means when it is seen, it exists. In the line, “The stars going waltzing out in red and blue”,
it’s actually implying that it is a flag, and it’s not waltzing, but instead flying. When the
speaker says, “sky”, she actually is implying that God is falling out of heaven.
Attitude—What is the attitude of the author, characters, or yourself?
A
The attitude of this poem is sort of depressed and upset and disappointed. We know this
and can see this because she uses words like “dead” and “arbitrary blackness.”
The mood as I read this poem is that of depression and sadness and anger that this man
that she so obviously loves left her and now she is left unhappy and alone and all she can
do is think about him.
Shift—At first we think or feel one way—then there is a shift: identify the shifts and explain them
S
There really isn’t much of a shift in the poem, it continues on in its dreary sad mood. And
the “mad girl” sticks to her unhappiness. From the beginning, it starts off very dramatic
and blunt, and then as it continues she talks about how she had hope that he’d come back,
but too much time passed and she doesn’t remember his name, but still feels the pain of
being left.
Title revisited—any new insights on meaning or significance of title.
T
I can now see that the poem is about a boy who has left this girl and now she is in a state
of depression. I can see new insight in it because it’s a bit ironic because a love song
should be gushy, but since they say, “mad girl,” it changes the whole meaning of “love
song.”
Theme or Author’s Purpose
T
The theme of this poem is loss and loneliness, as well as depression. It is about loss
because it mentions death several times and blackness and it mentions things like God
falling from heaven, and Hell freezing over and Satan and his men walking out of there
and running free.
I think that this poem is about Sylvia Plath herself and about how her husband left her for
another woman. She thought that he’d come back to her and they’d make up, but it never
happened. She was very depressed and upset.