With the TWIST method, students are asked to look for and analyze the following terms: tone, word choice, imagery and detail, style, and theme. Learn more about how to make prose analysis fun and engaging with storyboards!
Written in 1910, ”If” is a poem that consists of sound advice from a father to his son. Each stanza reflects on different life challenges and how to handle them. “If” is a wonderful poem to teach children about growing up, making good choices, and believing in yourself.
Create a TWIST analysis for Rudyard Kipling's poem "If"
Storyboard Text
T - TONE
If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, and blaming it on you...
W - WORD CHOICE
I - IMAGERY
Fred'sMarket
It opens in 5 minutes.
CLOSED
S - STYLE
If you can force your heart and sinewTo serve your turn long after they are gone,And so hold on when there is nothing in youExcept the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
T - THEME
You'll be a man, my son.
The tone of this poem is didactic, which means it sets out to teach a lesson. In this case, a father speaking to his son.
Kipling uses a lot of figurative language in this poem. One example is when he writes, "Yours is the world, and everything in it." This is a hyperbole, or an exaggerated fact.
An example of imagery is, "If you can wait, and not be tired by waiting."
"If" is a lyrical poem. This means that it is written with such a rhythm and rhyme pattern that it resembles the musical qualities of a song.
The theme of this poem is self-development. The author is telling his son all of the things that he needs to do, in order to grow into a good man.