IT’S WHAT YOU SAY AND HOW YOU SAY IT! Tone and Mood in Poetry

What are Tone and Mood? Tone is attitude! Attitude is the way we treat things or feel about things. If I have a positive attitude towards something, then I treat it well or feel good about it. The opposite holds true for a negative attitude. In poetry, tone is the attitude of the narrator or speaker (poet) towards the subject of the poem. In other words, does the narrator or speaker treat the subject in a positive or negative way?

Tone is Not the Same as Mood Mood is how the poet makes the reader feel, and how we feel when we read poetry is often affected by the tone of the poem. Here’s another way to look at it: Poet Tone Reader Mood

Tone Affects Mood in Poetry Let’s compare two poems about the same subject: The subject of both poems is the sea. In poem A, the poet uses words like “dark”, “moan”, and “death” to describe the sea. In poem B, the poet uses words like “stars”, “light”, and “restless” to describe the sea. How would you describe the tone of each poem? How would describe the mood? A Life's city ways are dark, Men mutter by, the wells Of the great waters moan. O death, O sea, O tide, The waters moan like bells. No light, no mark, The soul goes out alone On seas unknown. B The skies are sown with stars tonight, The sea is sown with light, The hollows of the heaving floor Gleam deep with light once more, The racing ebb-tide flashes past And seeks the vacant vast, A wind steals from a world asleep And walks the restless deep.

Review Tone and mood are two different yet connected elements of poetry. Tone is the narrator’s (poet) attitude toward the subject of the poem. Mood is how the reader feels. So how are tone and mood different? Well, a reader can feel afraid for a character, even if the narrator doesn’t seem to care about that same character.

Guided Practice Let’s discuss the tone and mood of some poems together. 1. Read the passage together. 2. Describe the tone of the narrator or speaker (poet) toward the subject. 3. Support your answer using evidence from the text. 4. Share the mood of the poem with your partner.

Poem 1 Piping down the valleys wild, Piping songs of pleasant glee, On a cloud I saw a child, And he laughing said to me: ‘Pipe a song about a Lamb!’ So I piped with merry cheer. ‘Piper, pipe that song again.’ So I piped: he wept to hear.

Possible Answer The tone of the poem is positive and pleasant. The poet uses phrases like “merry cheer” and “piping songs of pleasant glee”. Clearly, the narrator is happy. I feel happy too, when I read this poem. It makes me think of a young child laughing and playing to music.

Poem 2 Dearest, forgive that with my clumsy touch I broke and bruised your rose. I hardly could suppose It were a thing so fragile that my clutch Could kill it, thus.

Possible Answers The tone seems negative; one of regret and sorrow. The person speaking in the poem is asking for forgiveness. This shows that she feels bad about what she has done. This poem makes me feel a little bit sad. I feel like the speaker in the poem didn’t mean to do what she did, and asking for forgiveness is never easy.

Poem 3 And still of a winter's night, they say, when the wind is in the trees, When the moon is a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas, When the road is a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor, A highwayman comes riding-- Riding-- riding-- A highwayman comes riding, up to the old inn-door.

Possible Answers The tone is neither positive nor negative, but seems to be rather spooky or fearful. The narrator refers to the moon as a “ghostly galleon” (a galleon is an old ship). It is also a cloudy and windy night. This poem makes me feel kind of creepy. It’s a spooky night and a strange highwayman appears out of nowhere.