Lesson 12
Poetry Analysis Using TPCASTT
Today’s Agenda
1. Collect Lesson 11 homework
2. TPCASTT – What in the world do those
letters mean?
3. “Auto Wreck” by Karl Shapiro
1. Annotate (using TPCASTT)
2. Formulate thesis.
3. Support with evidence.
1. DUE LESSON 13
OBJECTIVE: Critical Analysis of Poem
Getting Started…
• This is a process to help you organize your
analysis of poetry.
• Together, we are going to analyze “Auto
Wreck” by Karl Shapiro using TPCASTT.
• You have a note sheet that looks like this…
T is for TITLE
• Analyze the title first.
• What do you predict this poem will be
about?
• Write down your predictions.
• We will reflect on the title again after we
have read the poem.
• The next step is often omitted, but it is the
most important!!!!
READ THE POEM!!!!
P is for PARAPHRASE
• YOUR OWN
WORDS
• May be three
sentences or a page,
depending on the
particular poem
C is for CONNOTATION
• Analyze the figures of
speech and sound
effects of the poem.
• These are the poetry
vocabulary we have
already studied.
• These elements add to
the meaning.
A is for ATTITUDE
• Tone is the attitude of
the speaker toward the
subject of the poem.
S is for SHIFT
• If there is a change
in…
– Time
– Tone
– Speaker
This should always
be noted as this
will also affect the
meaning.
T is for TITLE (again)
• At this time, you should reconsider the
title.
• Were you right in your predictions?
• What other meanings might the title have
in light of your analysis?
• Next, the biggie….
T is for THEME
• As you already know, theme is the general
insight into life conveyed by the author
through his/her work.
• It does not make a judgment.
example: “Don’t do drugs” is not a theme.
It merely states something that is true to
life and the human condition.
How do I find the THEME?
• Look at the other
parts of TPCASTT.
• What insight are all of
these working
together to convey?
• What is the poet
trying to say about
life?
“Auto Wreck” by Karl Shapiro
Its quick soft silver bell beating, beating,
And down the dark one ruby flare
Pulsing out red light like an artery,
The ambulance at top speed floating down
Past beacons and illuminated clocks
Wings in a heavy curve, dips down,
And brakes speed, entering the crowd.
The doors leap open, emptying light;
Stretchers are laid out, the mangled lifted
And stowed into the little hospital.
Then the bell, breaking the hush, tolls once.
And the ambulance with its terrible cargo
Rocking, slightly rocking, moves away,
As the doors, an afterthought, are closed.
We are deranged, walking among the cops
Who sweep glass and are large and composed.
One is still making notes under the light.
One with a bucket douches ponds of blood
Into the street and gutter.
One hangs lanterns on the wrecks that cling,
Empty husks of locusts, to iron poles.
Our throats were tight as tourniquets,
Our feet were bound with splints, but now,
Like convalescents intimate and gauche,
We speak through sickly smiles and warn
With the stubborn saw of common sense,
The grim joke and the banal resolution.
The traffic moves around with care,
But we remain, touching a wound
That opens to our richest horror.
Already old, the question Who shall die?
Becomes unspoken Who is innocent?
For death in war is done by hands;
Suicide has cause and stillbirth, logic;
And cancer, simple as a flower, blooms.
But this invites the occult mind,
Cancels our physics with a sneer,
And spatters all we knew of denouement
Across the expedient and wicked stones.
Putting It All Together
TITLE AND AUTHOR
WHAT HE DOES AND THE
EFFECT
In “Auto Wreck” by Karl Shapiro, Shapiro uses similes and metaphors
to emphasize the fantasy-like and wild setting of the auto wreck. He
describes the light as “Pulsing out red light like an artery,” comparing
the red light emitted from an ambulance to the blood of an artery. The
idea that a light is spurted out like blood is abstract and bizarre. In
addition to that simile, Shapiro describes the wreckage as “Empty husks”
locust-like in the devastation they cause. This depiction of the auto
wreck is extravagant and almost unreal. Using figurative language,
Shapiro reinforces the theme of death as being bizarre and perplexing.
SPECIFIC EXAMPLES
EFFECT OF EXAMPLES
RESTATEMENT OF THESIS