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TPCASTT:  Poem Analysis Method


Title: A Summer’s Dream by Elizabeth Bishop sound like it will be happy and uplifting. 

Paraphrase: In this poem, I feel as if Bishop is observing these 4 characters in one room and making a poem about them. The owl seems a bit random. The poem, although it is titled A Summer's Dream which makes you think of sunny, fun and happy things, seems like a contradiction to the actual poem which has nothing to do with summer and who's tone has dark feelings at times. 

Connotation: 

Diction: wharf, geraniums, linoleums,  somnambulist 

Attitude: The attitude of the author is a mix between dreamy and gloomy. She doesn't stick to one subject and jumps from one thing to another. This moment seems like a real moment but pictured in a dreamy way where her attention shifts from one thing to another.

Tone: I hate repetition but her tone seems dreamy, smooth and gloomy at times. 

Shift(s): I think these two verses are where the poem shifts from normal, content to serious and gloomy.
Extraordinary geraniums
crowded the front windows,
the floors glittered with
assorted linoleums.

Every night we listened
for a horned owl.
In the horned lamp flame,
the wallpaper glistened.

Title revisited: The title is referring to a memory and the poem is the description of part of the memory that she allows us to see into. She gives us details that make us question the title but in all the title is what she got out of the memory although we can extract other feelings from the poem.

Theme: Im struggling on this one...