TP-CASTT Analysis

TITLE:  “Sympathy” suggests that the author of the poem will want us to feel sympathy for him, for a particular situation, or that he has sympathy for another person or situation.

PARAPHRASE:  This poem is about a caged bird wishing for its freedom.  It can see other birds that are free, it can see the beauty of nature, but it is trapped.  In the 2^nd stanza it becomes clear that the bird wants freedom so badly it has hurt itself on the bars of the cage by flapping its wings.  In the third stanza it seems as though there is no hope for freedom and the bird is singing a sad song of defeat and prayer to Heaven

CONNOTATION: 

Form:  Regular Verse, abaabcc

Diction: Simple

Imagery:  Imagery of nature, of the birds injured wings, the confinement in the cage, the loss of hope the bird feels

Point of View: First person Narrative

Details: Vivid description of the plight of a caged bird with which the author shares the same feelings of entrapment

Allusions: Do not observe any

Symbolism:  The cage symbolizes the entrapment that the author feels, and the bird symbolizes the author himself.

Figurative Language:  Examples include “wind stirs”, “springing grass”, “like a stream of glass”, “chalice steals”

ATTITUDE: The author is the speaker in this poem, and he is sharing through the poem that he feels just like the caged bird, which is the subject of the poem.  The title shows his sympathy with the plight of the bird, because he feels the same strong emotions and despair as the bird.

SHIFTS:  The biggest shifts occur between each stanza.  There is a feeling that the bird is more and more frustrated and hopeless in its situation as the poem progresses.

TITLE: The title shows the feelings of the author of sympathy with the caged bird, because he himself feels trapped as well

THEME:  The theme of this poem loss of freedom and the pain that is caused to someone who has lost that freedom.  In the poem, this takes the form of a caged bird.  But the poet demonstrates that others can feel the same frustration as the bird in their lives.

Questions:

1.     The caged bird wants to be free.  He is trapped in a cage and longs to be out in the wild, with the wind and the sun and other birds.

2.     The caged bird can see other birds who are free, “When the first bird sings and the first bud opes”.  This makes the bird even more frustrated, because others are free.

3.     In the first stanza, the bird feels frustrated in the cage because he just wants to be free.  By the second stanza, he is trying to escape the cage, even to the point of making his wings bleed.  By the third stanza, the bird is crying a song of deep despair, having given up his hope for freedom.

     The effect of this progression on the reader of the poem is that the situation seems more and more intense and we feel more and more sympathy for the plight of the bird.

4.     It is clear that the poet wants to be free just like the bird.  Although we don’t know exactly why it is that the poet feels trapped or what situation he is  in, he wants to be free from something… maybe jail, maybe a relationship, maybe debt, but whatever the cause, he feels trapped.