Tone and Mood Poems

Tone can best described as

• attitude of the reader toward what they are reading about
• the overall mood or feeling in a story
• the author's attitude toward the subject he/she is writing about
• reader's point of view

What is the "mood" of  a story?

• Emotions audience feels from a given passage.
• The time and place of the story.
• The summary of events of the story.
• The lesson the reader learns from the story.

To remember what tone is, some good tricks are:

• AA-author's attitude
• parent saying: "don't give me that tone"
• imagining the author's facial expression as he writes
• all of these are true

The tone and mood of a text can be very different

• true
• false

If an author has no emotion regarding the story he is telling, his tone can be described as

• playful
• objective
• ironic
• mysterious

Read the following poem, "A Birthday" by Christina Rossetti and answer the question below.
My heart is like a singing bird  
Whose nest is a weathered shoot;
My heart is like an apple-tree  
Whose boughs are bent with thick-set fruit; My heart is like a rainbow shell   That paddles in a halcyon [peaceful] sea;
My heart is gladder than all these  
Because my love is come to me.
QUESTION: What tone do the details of the poem convey? 

• Sorrow
• Happiness
• Excitement
• Nervousness

There go the loves that wither [dry up],   The old loves with wearier wings;
And all dead years draw thither [there]   And disastrous things;
Dead dreams of days forsaken, Blind buds that snows have shaken, Wild leaves that winds have taken,  
Red strays of ruined springs. ...
And love, grown faint and fretful With lips but half regretful Sighs, and with eyes forgetful   Weeps that no loves endure [last].
QUESTION: What tone do the details in the poem convey?

• Wastefulness and excess
  
• Happiness
  
• Sadness and despair
  
• Mistrust
  

Which tone is represented in the following passage?
Wow! With a top speed of one hundred fifty miles per hour, that car can almost fly!

• Calm
• Annoyed
• Scary
• Excited

What is the tone of the following passage?
The alarm buzzed. Jordan smashed her fist down on it--hard. It flew off the nightstand and bounced off her cat, Armstrong. The cat yowled indignantly and rocketed out the room.

• Eerie
• Sarcastic
• Passionate
• Humorous

What word would you use to describe the tone of this passage?

• Humorous
• Persuasive
• Anxious
• Cheerful