More on mood and tone poetry

Mood and Tone Mood is the overall feeling of the poem. Tone is the poet’s “voice” or attitude toward the poem or audience.  Some poems seem serious or sad, while others are humorous or lighthearted.  Sometimes the mood can change over the course of the poem. What is the mood and tone in these teaching poems?

Where Go the Boats? by Robert Louis Stevenson Dark brown is the river, Golden is the sand. It flows along forever With trees on either hand. Green leaves a-floating, Castles of the foam, Boats of mine a-boating– Where will all come home? On goes the river And out past the mill, Away down the valley, Away down the hill. Away down the river, A hundred miles or more, Other little children Shall bring my boats ashore.

The Joke You Just Told by Anonymous The joke you just told isn’t funny one bit. It’s pointless and dull, wholly lacking in wit. It’s so old and stale, it’s beginning to smell! Besides, it’s the one I was going to tell.

A Minor Bird by Robert Frost I have wished a bird would fly away, And not sing by my house all day; Have clapped my hands at him from the door When it seemed as if I could bear no more. The fault must partly have been in me. The bird was not to blame for his key. And of course there must be something wrong In wanting to silence any song.

The Snowflake by Walter de la Mare Before I melt, Come, look at me! This lovely icy filigree! Of a great forest In one night I make a wilderness Of white: By skyey cold Of crystals made, All softly, on Your finger laid, I pause, that you My beauty see: Breathe, and I vanish Instantly.

The Big Baboon by Hillaire Belloc The Big Baboon is found upon The plains of Cariboo: He goes about with nothing on (A shocking thing to do). But if he dressed up respectably And let his whiskers grow, How like this Big Baboon would be To Mister So-and-so!