TP-CASTT Example
“Janet Waking”
By John Crowe Ransom
Beautifully Janet slept
Till it was deeply morning. She woke then
And thought about her dainty-feathered hen,
To see how it had kept.
One kiss she gave her mother,
Only a small one gave she to her daddy
Who would have kissed each curl of his shining baby;
No kiss at all for her brother.
“Old Chucky, Old Chucky!” she cried,
Running across the world upon the grass
To Chucky’s house, and listening. But alas,
Her Chucky had died.
It was a transmogrifying bee
Came droning down on Chucky’s old bald head
And sat and put the poison. It scarcely bled,
But how exceedingly
And purply did the knot
Swell with the venom and communicate
Its rigour! Now the poor comb stood up straight
But Chucky did not.
So there was Janet
Kneeling on the wet grass, crying her brown hen
(Translated far beyond the daughters of men)
To rise and walk upon it.
And weeping fast as she had breath
Janet implored us, “Wake her from her sleep!”
And would not be instructed in how deep
Was the forgetful kingdom of death.
T: Title
“Janet Waking” implies a girl waking up.
P: Paraphrase
Janet is a young girl who wakes up and thinks of her hen. A brief interaction
with her family, and she runs out to see Chucky. Chucky is dead. He was stung
by a bee. Janet does not yet understand death.
C: Connotation
“Till it was deeply morning” is a play on the word morning/mourning and
can be seen as foreshadowing that mourning will take place to a deep
extent.
“Running across the world upon the grass” indicates that Janet’s world
consists of her yard and demonstrates her to be a young child, still
sheltered from the real world.
“[V]enom” is a word that has a significant association with evil.
“Now the poor comb stood up straight / But Chucky did not” is an
understatement that downplays the seriousness of death and interjects
humour into a situation which is devastating for Janet, yet somewhat
comical to adults.
A: Attitude
The tone of the speaker narrating the poem (Janet’s father) is light-hearted while
dealing with the serious topic of a child’s first experience with death. The
comical understatement mentioned above as well as the familial interaction most
significantly demonstrates this tone. The tone of the ending is somewhat more
forlorn as Janet’s refusal to comprehend death is a stark illustration of her youth
and innocence – two characteristics which will also end with the passage of time.
S: Shift
The major shift occurs at the phrase “But alas” which indicates a change; and
indeed, as Chucky has died and now Janet is confronted with the concept of
death, her innocence is changed.
T: Title
“Janet Waking” now deals with the idea that she is awakening from innocence to
the reality of death.
T: Theme
Death or Innocence
Understanding death marks a departure from innocence.
