Name: _______________________________
Antigone: Poetry Connections
Directions: Read the following poems and complete the TPCASTT process for each of them. Be sure to annotate
the poems as you read, noting literary devices, words indicating tone, and potential shifts. After you have
completed a TPCASTT for each poem, complete the prompt at the bottom of this page.
“If We Must Die” by Claude McKay
“Invictus” by William Ernest Henley
If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Out of the night that covers me,
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
I thank whatever gods may be
Making their mock at our accursèd lot.
For my unconquerable soul.
If we must die, O let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe!
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.
Final Prompt: On a separate sheet of paper, compose an argument (at least one paragraph) that justifies which
poem best represents Antigone. Use specific textual evidence to support your argument and explain your
reasoning.
TPCASTT: Poem Analysis Method
“If We Must Die”
Title
What do you think the title of the
poem means?
What do you think the poem will
be about based on the title?
Paraphrase
Choose an important line (or
lines) from each poem and put
them in everyday speech.
Connotation
What literary devices are used?
(similes, metaphors, rhyme,
rhythm, symbolism, etc.)
Consider importance of specific
word choices.
Attitude
What is the attitude of the
speaker? How can you tell?
Shift (Change)
What changes do you see in the
poem?
Look at rhyme scheme, format,
tone, ideas etc.
Title revisited
Now that you have read the
poem are there any new insights
into the title?
Theme
What is the central idea or moral
of the text?
“Invictus”