Mood and Poetry

The definition of mood is 

• the overall feelings or emotions in the writer.
• revising your writing so that it is free of errors.
• overall feelings or emotions that are created in the reader. 
• working with a partner to check your writing. 

What is tone in writing?

• The reader's attitude toward the subject.
• The author's attitude toward the subject.
• The reader's feelings about the subject.
• The sound that comes from a piano when you press a key. 

Authors set a TONE or MOOD in literature by conveying an emotion or emotions through ________.

• space
• height
• words
• funny faces

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 mood do the details of the poem convey? (Look specifically at the three things the speaker compares her heart to.)

• Sorrow

• Happiness

• Excitement

• Nervousness

City Autumn By Joseph Moncure March
   The air breathes frost. A thin wind beats
Old dust and papers down gray streets
And blows brown leaves with curled-up edges
At frightened sparrows on window ledges.
What is the mood?

• joyful
• annoyed
• gloomy
• puzzled

The City is So Big

by Richard Garcia

I have seen machines eating houses

And stairways walk all by themselves

And elevator doors opening and closing And people disappear.

What is the mood?

• fearful and confused

• jealous and annoyed

• heartbroken and bitter

• irritated and embarassed

Dreams, by Langston Hughes

Hold fast to dreams

For if dreams die

Life is a broken-winged bird

That cannot fly.

What is the mood?

• sorrowful

• irritated

• puzzled

• apprehensive

I Dream a World by Langston Hughes

A world I dream where black or white,

Whatever race you be,

Will share the bounties of the earth

And every man is free,

What is the mood?

• hopeful

• fearful

• agitated

• puzzled

Life Doesn't Frighten Me by Maya Angelou

Don’t show me frogs and snakes

And listen for my scream,

If I'm afraid at all

It’s only in my dreams.

What is the mood?

• confident

• frightened

• lonely

• melancholy

The Caged Bird by Maya Angelou

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams

his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream

What is the mood?

• joyful

• heartbroken

• embarassed

• thrilled