The World is a Beautiful Place by Lawrence Ferlinghetti (TPCASTT Analysis)
General
Stanza 1
Stanza 3
Stanza 3
Title: Before Analyzing Poem
Has a Positive Connotation to it
The World (makes Earth seem grand and admirable), instead of using the word ‘Earth’
Beautiful (positive, makes the poem look like it’s praising about the amazing wonders of the World)
Paraphrase
The Earth is a wondrous place, to be living in, if you are okay with happiness not always being enjoyable, if you are okay with going through a bit of suffering once in awhile because even in heaven it’s not always joyous.
Connotation
Lines
L3-L5: “...happiness” and “not always being so much fun”
Juxtaposition: Placing two ideas side by side in order to compare and contrast.
The author probably used this literary device because they want to show readers that happiness is not always about being fun, possibly to say that the process of achieving happiness sometimes requires hard work and struggles to be faced. This literary device highlights the theme as it is trying to explain that you could see the world as a beautiful place from your perspective if you can handle the obstacles that life throws at you.
L6-L7: “if you don’t mind a touch of hell, now and then”
Symbolism: A symbol/word that is usually associated with certain ideas or feelings.
Concrete Imagery: Helps readers to be able to visualize and sense the scenario that the author is trying to create.
“Hell” has a negative connotation and it is usually associated with words like ‘pain’, ‘fire’ or ‘struggle’. The author uses symbolism with the word ‘hell’ so that people are able to probably understand that hell actually represents struggles that human beings go through.
The author used this literary device because he wants the readers to sense how it feels as if they felt a ‘touch’ of hell. Hell is also associated with the word ‘pain’, so since most people have felt pain, they can imagine that a touch of hell would be quite painful.
L9-L11: “because even in heaven they don’t sing all the time”
Symbolism: A symbol/word that is usually associated with certain ideas or feelings.
Juxtaposition: Placing two ideas side by side in order to compare and contrast
“Heaven” is usually associated with the words “angel”, “love”, “happiness” or “peace”. The author mentions that, “even in heaven they don’t sing all the time”, to show that the idea of heaven as eternal happiness portrayed by people is not always perfect.
Paraphrase
The Earth is a wondrous place, to be living in, if you are okay with several egotistical and reckless leaders, war occurring at times and today’s corrupt society that only cares about materialistic things, who are heavily influenced by powerful people, fallen dictators, religion and law.
Connotation
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Title: After Analyzing the Poem
Attitude (of the Speaker)
Shift
Theme
Stanza 2
Paraphrase
The Earth is a wondrous place, to be living in, if you are okay with people dying everyday or not having enough food to eat sometimes, but it would not be as bad if you are not the one experiencing it.
Connotation
L3-L4: ”If you don’t mind some people dying, all the time”
L5-L6: “Or maybe only starving, some of the time”
Enjambment: When a sentence poetry is continued to the next line
Diction: The choice of words that the author uses to enhance the poem
The author uses enjambment for lines three to four and lines five to six, to emphasize what he is trying to say. In this case, for lines three to four, the author wants to state that people die all the time. He uses the word ‘some’ followed by ‘all’ to give some hope to a sad situation, that only some people die. He wants to show that it is okay, only a few people die. However, he later states the reality that people die all the time. Besides that, for lines five and six, they were probably written so that the readers do not feel too sad after the fact that the author mentioned that people die all the time. He does this by saying people starve “sometimes”.
L7-L8: “which isn’t half bad, if it isn’t you”
Diction: The choice of words that the author uses to enhance the poem
These two lines have been specifically chosen to be referred to lines three to six in order to show the audience that we should be grateful to be alive because other people have it worse than us; where people die everyday and some have not enough food to consume.