TPCASTT
A step-by-step approach to reading poetry. Use it when you need help getting started; follow the text and guiding question when you build your response.
TECHNIQUEMirror — Sylvia Plath
Use your class copy or the linked text alongside these notes. The poem is copyright-protected and is not reproduced in full here.
Read Mirror at All Poetry ↗Word stays editable. PDF keeps the two-column worksheet layout for reading and printing. Completed notes include your writing and the prompts; worked examples stay on this page.
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Title: a first prediction
Before reading, what possibilities does the title suggest? Be ready to revise your prediction.
A mirror might promise an accurate reflection—or raise questions about how we see ourselves.
Paraphrase
Establish what literally happens. Who speaks? What changes? Summarize briefly in your own words.
A reflective surface describes its work. A woman repeatedly seeks her reflection and confronts her ageing.
Connotation
Select precise language, imagery, sound or form. Explain what each choice adds beyond literal meaning.
“Silver and exact” claims detachment, but the mirror’s “heart” complicates it. The lake gives reflection depth and uncertainty.
Attitude
Describe the speaker’s attitude with evidence. Do not assume the speaker and the poet are the same person.
The voice begins confidently, as if reporting facts without emotion. The woman’s distress makes that apparent neutrality harder to accept.
Shifts
Locate a change in voice, tone, imagery, time or argument. How does it change the meaning?
“Now I am a lake” begins the second stanza. Looking becomes searching; the final “terrible fish” makes ageing threatening.
Title: reconsidered
Return to your first hypothesis. How has the whole poem changed your understanding?
The title now names a troubling relationship between external appearance and a self the woman wants to recover.
Theme
Write a claim about meaning that you can support, not a one-word topic. Test it against the whole poem.
One reading: looking for certainty in a reflection can intensify anxiety about change. Test it against the speaker’s confident opening.
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