Unit 2 Fiction and Poetry Flashcards
TP-CASTT
T for Title - Question what the title means
P for Paraphrase - Rephrase what the poem is saying using coloquial language
C for Connotation - Identify figurative language (simile, metaphor, personification, symbolism), diction, point of view, sound devices (alliteration, assonance, consonance, onomatopoeia, rhythm, rhyme), allusion, antithesis, apostrophe, synecdoche, metonymy, meiosis
A for Attitude or Tone - Identify the speaker’s attitude and the poet’s tone. See PDIDLS for tone analysis.
S for Shifts - Note any shifts in the speaker or in attitude
T for Theme - Determine what the poet is saying
PDIDLS
P for Point of View - Identify the perspective of the speaker.
D for Diction - Understand the connotation of the word choice.
I for Images - Examine vivid appeals to understanding through the senses and use of figurative language.
D for Details - Note any acts included, or omitted, based on the speaker’s perspective.
L for Language - Describe the overall use of language such as formal, clinical, jargon, and emotional. These words describe force or quality of diction, images, and details. They qualify how the work is written.
S for Sentence Structure - Determine how structure affects the reader’s attitude about what the poet is saying.
Araby by James Joyce
“Araby” is more than the tale of a boy who has a crush on a girl. Every subtle detail, every word used, combines to create a vivid picture of the bittersweet experience of first love. This is a story of contrasts and incongruity. Carefully constructed, every element of the text works to create this effec
Sweat by Zora Neale Hurston
Furthermore, the narrator creates sympathy for Delia as revenger by relying so freely on colloquial speech patterns to tell the story. The patterns that appear in the dialogue tell much about the culture in which Delia lives. We know her world is a world of the undereducated, the poor, the marginalized, the exploited, the oppressed, a world of few opportunities, for women in particular, and few protections. The people who rule it, from a distance, are “white folks,” who are in large part responsible for Delia’s suffering.
High Holy Days by Jane Shore
Jane Shore’s poem “High Holy Days” is a narrative—a speaker’s re-telling of a childhood experience going to temple with her family. It’s also one poet’s expression of what it means to be Jewish in a contemporary context that is inevitably and indelibly colored by both ancient and modern events.
The Collar by George Herbert
The British poet George Herbert first published “The Collar” in his famous 1633 collection of devotional verse, The Temple. In this autobiographical poem, a clergyman rages against all the limitations of religious life, longing for freedom and pleasure rather than duty and endless, guilt-ridden self-scrutiny. But no matter how much he struggles, he just can’t get around two facts: God exists, and he has a calling to serve his “Lord.” Religious faith, this poem suggests, can feel more like a burden than a consolation—but that doesn’t mean one can run from it.
The Most of It by Robert Frost
The man in the poem wants “the most of it”: He wants more out of life than it ordinarily provides. Thus he spends time alone in nature, seeking a certain kind of response from “the universe,” but he feels disappointed when nature does not provide that kind of response.
Design by Robert Frost
Robert Frost’s “Design,” first published in a 1922 anthology of American poetry, reflects on the argument that the complexity of the world proves that a supernatural creator (i.e., God) must have designed things. The speaker of stumbles across a strange sight one morning that, on one level, might indeed suggest a guiding hand bringing different elements of nature together: a white spider holding a dead white moth on top of a white flower.
The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin
Louise Mallard has heart trouble, so she must be informed carefully about her husband’s death. Her sister, Josephine, tells her the news. Louise’s husband’s friend, Richards, learned about a railroad disaster when he was in the newspaper office and saw Louise’s husband, Brently, on the list of those killed. Louise begins sobbing when Josephine tells her of Brently’s death and goes upstairs to be alone in her room.
