| T | TITLE |
The poem will be about a mystical tree that poisons everything around it. |
|---|---|---|
| P | PARAPHRASE |
The speaker bottles up his anger toward his enemy. He presents a false front and acts nicely toward the enemy while cursing him in his head. Eventually, his anger and deceit lead to tragedy. The enemy dies, and the speaker's corrupted moral compass causes him to feel a twisted happiness at this result. |
| C | CONNOTATION |
The man's anger is considered a poison. The tree and the apple are poisonous growths that, like anger, can kill. |
| A | ATTITUDE/TONE |
Blake uses words like "wrath", "foe", "deceitful", "wiles", and "stole" to convey the dark emotions of the poem. The speaker has a sinister and venomous tone. |
| S | SHIFT |
A shift occurs in the first stanza when the speaker goes from telling his anger to keeping it in. The poem gradually grows more sinister as it progresses from this point. The sentence lengths in the first stanza are short and simple, but they later increase as the speaker's wrath becomes more intense and his lies more frequent. |
| T | TITLE |
After reading the poem, I realize that the tree is a symbol of the speaker's anger. As the speaker dwells on his anger, the tree grows poisonous fruit, suggesting that anger produces dangerous results. |
| T | THEME |
Expressing our emotions is a healthy way the deal with conflict. |
(These instructions are completely customizable. After clicking "Copy Activity", update the instructions on the Edit Tab of the assignment.)
Student Instructions
Perform a TPCASTT analysis of “A Poison Tree”. Remember that TPCASTT stands for Title, Paraphrase, Connotation, Attitude/Tone, Shift, Title, Theme.
Design simple charts or posters for each TPCASTT element. Visuals help students quickly connect abstract ideas to concrete images and make poetry analysis more accessible during class discussions.
Read each TPCASTT step aloud and verbalize your thought process. This shows students how to break down challenging poems and encourages them to use critical thinking strategies on their own.
Assign groups to analyze different TPCASTT elements and share their interpretations with the class. Collaboration builds confidence and helps students see multiple perspectives in poetry.
Offer sentence frames like "The tone of this poem is..." or "The symbol in the title suggests...". Scaffolding responses gives all students a clear entry point into analysis and builds academic language skills.
Prompt students to relate the poem’s theme—such as expressing emotions in a healthy way—to their own lives or current events. Personal connections make poetry more meaningful and memorable.
A TPCASTT analysis for “A Poison Tree” is a structured method to interpret the poem by breaking it into seven parts: Title, Paraphrase, Connotation, Attitude/Tone, Shift, Title (again), and Theme. This approach helps students deeply analyze William Blake's message about anger and its consequences.
To teach TPCASTT analysis, introduce each step with examples, use familiar poems like “A Poison Tree,” and guide students to interpret meaning, tone, and theme. Encourage group discussions and use visual aids or graphic organizers for clarity.
In “A Poison Tree,” the tree symbolizes the speaker's growing anger. As the speaker nurtures his wrath, the tree grows and produces a poisonous fruit, representing the dangerous effects of suppressed emotions.
The main theme of “A Poison Tree” is that repressing anger can have destructive consequences. Blake suggests that expressing emotions openly is healthier than bottling them up.
Easy lesson ideas include: using storyboards to illustrate each TPCASTT step, having students paraphrase each stanza, discussing symbolism and tone, and comparing student interpretations in groups to deepen understanding.