A theoretical formalism is put forward with the aim of describing the softening of first-order transverse optical phonons in a strained tetragonal perovskitic lattice. On the basis of the dynamical equation for nondegenerate polar modes, the influence of oblique phonons could be first described by assuming a prevalence of short-range interatomic forces; then, the softening effect arising from external stress could be explicitly expressed as a function of orientation of the crystallographic texture. As a further step in the adopted formalism, the microstructure of a perovskitic polycrystal has been ideally modeled as an ensemble of mesocrystals, whose individual crystallographic directions corresponded to an average orientation over the unit volume of the probe. An experimental confirmation of the theoretical formalism is concurrently carried out, and phonon deformation potentials (PDP) have been directly measured for the first-order transverse phonon of a tetragonal PbZrTiO3 perovskite lattice.