Tone in Poetry-Chapter

CHAPTER
Tone: The Creation of Attitude
in Poetry
Tone (see also Chapter 8), a term derived from the
phrase tone of voice, describes the shaping of attitudes in
poetry. Each poet's choice of words governs the reader's responses, as do the participants and situations in
the poem. In addition, the poet shapes responses
through denotation and connotation:, seriousness or
humor, irony, metaphors, similes, understatement,
overstatement, and other figures of speech (see
Chapter 17). Ofmajorirhportance is the poem's speaker. How much self-awareness does the speaker show?
What is his or her background? What relationship does
the speaker establish with listeners and readers? What
does the speaker assume about the readers and about
their knowledge? How do these assumptions affect the
ideas and the diction?
To compare poetic tone with artistic tone, see the
reproduction of Fernand Leger's painting The City (Insert II-8). A viewer's response to the painting depends
on the relationships .of the various shapes to Leger's
arrangement and color. The signs, stairs, pole, and
human figures in the painting are all common in modern cities. By cutting them up or leaving them partially
hidden, Leger creates an atmosphere suggesting that
contemporary urban life is truncated, sinister, and
even threatening.
The same control applies to poetic expression.
The sentences must be just long enough to achieve the
poet's intended effect-no shorter and no longer. In a
conversational style there should be no formal words,
just as in a formal style there should be no slang, no
rollicking rhythms, and no frivolous rhymes-that is,
unless the poet deliberately wants readers to be startled or shocked. In all the features that contribute to a
poem's tone, the poet's consistency of intention is primary. Any unintentional deviations will cause the
poem to sink and the poet to fail.
Chapter 18 - Tone.: The Creation
'in Poetry
759
• TONE, CHOICE, AND RESPONSE
~'
Remember that a m~or objective of poets is to stimulate, enrich, and inspire
readers. Poets may begin their poems with a brief idea, a vague feeling, or a
fleeting impression. Then, in the light of their developing design, they choose
what to say-the form of their material and the words and phrases to express
their ideas. The poem "Theme for English B" by Langston Hughes illustrates
this process in almost outline form. Hughes's speaker lays out many interests
that he shares with his intended reader, his English teacher, for the poem is
imagined to be a response to a classroom assignment. In this way Hughes encourages all readers to accept his ideas of human equality (see the demonstrative student essay, p. 789).
In the long run, readers might not accept all the ideas in any poem, but
the successful poem gains agreement-at least for a time-because the poet's
control over tone is right. Each poem attempts to evoke total responses, which
might be destroyed by any lapses in tone. Let us look at a poem in which the
tone misses, and misses badly.
CORNELIUS WHUR (1782-1853)
The First-Rate Wife
••
1837
This brief effusion I indite,
And my vast wishes send,
That thou mayst be directed right,
And have ere long within thy sight
A most enchanting friend!
The maiden should have lovely face,
And be of genteel mien;
If not, within thy dwelling place,
There may be vestige of disgrace,
Not much admired-when seen.
Nor will thy dearest be complete
Without domestic care;
If otherwise, howe'er discreet,
Thine eyes will very often meet
What none desire to share!
And further still-thy future dear,
Should have some mental ray;
If not, thou mayest drop a tear,
Because no real sense is there
To charm life's dreary day!
5
10
15
20
760
Chapter 18 - Tone: The Creation of Attitude in Poetry
QUESTIONS
1.
2.
3.
What kind of person is the poem's speaker? The listener? What is the situation?
What requirements does the speaker create for the "first-rate wife"?
Describe the poem's tone. How does the speaker's character influence the tone?
In light of the tone, to what degree can the poem be considered insulting?
How might lines 14 and 15 be interpreted as a possible threat if the woman as a
wife does not keep the house clean and straight?
In this poem the speaker is talking to a friend or associate and is explaining his requirements for a "first-rate wife." From his tone, he clearly regards getting married as little more than hiring a pretty housekeeper. In the phrase
"some mental ray," for example, the word some does not mean "a great deal" but
is more like "at least some," as though nothing more could be expected of a
woman. Even allowing for the fact that the poem was written early in the nineteenth century and represents a benighted view of women and marriage, "The
First-Rate Wife" offends most readers. Do you wonder why you've never heard of
Cornelius Whur before?
•
~P TONE AND THE NEED FOR CONTROL
"The First-Rate Wife" demonstrates the need for the poet to be in control over all
facets of the poem. The speaker must be aware of his or her situation and should
not, like Whur's speaker, demonstrate any smugness or insensitivity, unless the
poet is deliberately revealing the shortcomings of the speaker by dramatizing
them for the reader's amusement, as E. E. Cummings does in the poem "next to
of course god america i" (Chapter 14). In a poem with well-controlled tone, details and situations should be factually correct; observations should be logical and
fair, and also comprehensive and generally applicable. The following poem, based
on battlefield conditions in World War I, illustrates a masterly control over tone.
WILFRED OWEN (1893-1918)
Dulce et Decorum Esto
&•"'
1920
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge .
., Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nineso that dropped behind.
Gas!o GAS! Quick, boys!-An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
5
0
10
Chapter 18 - Tone: The Creation
761
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime ...
Dim, through the misty panes and thick greene light,
A5 under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
uation?
e tone?
15
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
:r~
~·
tan as a
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in.
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues.My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
{plainds get)hrase
1l" but
·d of a
~
nine,"The
:ard of
20
DULCE ET DECORUM EST. The Latin title comes from Horace's Odes, Book 3, line 13: Dulce et decorum est
propatria mori ("It is sweet and honorable to die for the fatherland"). 8 Five-Nines: Artillery shells that
made a hooting sound just before landing. 9 Gas: Chlorine gas was used as an antipersonnel weapon in
1915 by the Germans at Ypres, in Belgium. 10 helmets: Soldiers carried gas masks as normal battle equipment. 13 thick green: The chlorine gas used in gas attacks has a greenish-yellow color.
•ver all
;hould
~ss the
ttizing
text to
1e, deal and
based
·tone.
QUESTIONS
1.
What is the scene described in lines 1-8? What expressions does the speaker use
2.
to indicate his attitude toward the conditions?
What does the title of the poem mean? What attitude or conviction does it em-
3.
body?
Does the speaker really mean "my friend" in line 25? In what tone ofvoice might
4.
this phrase be spoken?
What is the tonal relationship between the patriotic fervor of the Latin phrase
and the images of the poem? How does the tonal contrast create the dominant
tone of the poem?
5
10
The tone of "Dulce et Decorum Est" never lapses. The poet intends the description to evoke a response of horror and shock, for he contrasts the strategic
goals of warfare with the speaker's up-close experience of terror in battle. The
speaker's language skillfully emphasizes first the dreariness and fatigue of warfare (with words like "sludge," "trudge," "lame," and "blind") and second the
agony of violent death from chlorine gas (embodied in the participles "guttering," "choking," "drowning," "smothering," and "writhing"). With these details
established, the concluding attack against the "glory" of war is difficult to refute,
even if warfare is undertaken to defend or preserve one's country. Although the
details about the agonized death may distress or discomfort a sensitive reader,
they are not designed to do that alone but instead are integral to the poem's argument. Ultimately, it is the contrast between the high ideals of the Latin phrase
25
762
Chapter 18 - Tone: The Creation of Attitude in Poetry
and the ugliness of battlefield death that creates the dominant tone of the
poem. The Latin phrase treats war and death in the abstract; the poem makes
images of battle and death vividly real. The resultant tone is that of controlled
bitterness and irony.
•
~,TONE AND COMMON GROUNDS OF ASSENT
Not all those reading Owen's poem will deny that war is sometimes necessary; the
issues of politics and warfare are far too complex for that. But the poem does
show another important aspect of tone-namely, the degree to which the poet
judges and tries to control responses through the establishment of a common
ground of assent. An appeal to a bond of commonly held interests, concerns, and
assumptions is essential if a poet is to maintain an effective tone. Owen, for ex~
ample, does not create arguments against the necessity of a just war. Instead, he
bases the poem on realistic details about the choking, writhing, spastic death suffered by the speaker's comrade, and he appeals to emotions that everyone, pacifist and militarist alike, would feel-horror at the contemplation of violent death.
Even assuming a widely divergent audience, in other words, the tone of the poem
is successful because it is based on commonly acknowledged facts and commonly
felt emotions. Knowing a poem like this one, even advocates of a strong military
would need to defend their ideas on the grounds of preventingjust such needless,
ugly deaths. Owen carefully considers the responses of his readers, and he regulates speaker, situation, detail, and argument in order to make the poem acceptable for the broadest possible spectrum of opinion.
\
TONE IN CONVERSATIQN.AND POETRY
Many readers think that tone is a subtle and difficult subject, but itis nevertheless true
that in ordinary situations we master tone easily and :expertly (see Chapter 8). We constantly use standard questions and statements that deal with tone; .such as. "What do
you mean by that?" "What I'm saying is this ... , " and "Did I hear,you correctly?!' togetherwith other comments that extend to humor and, sometimes, to hostility. In poetry we do not have everyday speech situations;; vye 1have.only the poems themselves and
are guided by the materials. they proviqe us. Some poems are,straightforvyard anp,un,
ambiguous, but it) .other P;pems.feeling and mood are essenti~l t.o.our !Jt)der~tanding.ln
Hardy's "The W0 rkbqx:· (p. 764), forexample, the husband's.gift;to hisvyif~Jildicat~s .'
not love ~ut~~~pidon,Aiso, ~he husband's relentle~sJinkin~ of the dea?'man'scoHint9.
the gift ,r~vealshis underlyinganger.Pope; i.nthe passage from the "Epilogue the
.satires" fncluded. inthi~ chapt)r, satiri~ally describesdepl rabl~ h~bits and customs o(
hisEnglish~o.ntemporaries in the 1730s. His conclUding lines (df th'e passage 'ahd also of
the poem) emphasize his scorn:
.
0
Yet may this verse (if such:a verse remain)
··Show there was one who held it in disdain.
to
Chapter 18 - Tone: The Creation of Attitude in Poetry
e of the
n makes
ntrolled
763
The speaker of Ondaatje's "Late Movies with Skyler" describes how he and Skyler watch
the late show. The activities described in the poem clearly establish a friendly and companionable bond between the two men. Poems of cou,rsg may alsorev!':a.l respect ,a,n<;l
wonder, as shown in the last six lines of Keats's "On Fir~t Lo_okiDQ,if1\oChapma,p's'
Homer" (Chapter 17). By attending carefully to the details.ofsllch,poerns,yqu.cao·
draw conclusions about poetic tone that are as accurate as ·~hqse you draw in, 'n.?rroal
speech situations.
;ary; the
~m does
he poet
common
·ns, and
. for ex~
ead,he
ath suf:e, pacitdeath.
Epoem
1monly
nilitary
~edless,
e reguaccept-
•
~,TONE AND IRONY
Irony is a mode of indirection, a means of making a point by emphasizing a discrepancy or opposite (see also Chapter 8). Thus Owen uses the title "Dulce et
Decorum Est" to emphasize that death in warfare is not sweet and honorable
but rather demeaning and horrible. The title ironically reminds us of eloquent
holiday speeches at the tombs of unknown soldiers, but as we have seen, it also
reminds us of the reality of the agonized death of Owen's soldier. As an aspect of
tone, therefore, irony is a powerful way of conveying attitudes,for it draws your
attention to at least two ways of seeing a situation, enabling you not only to understand but also to experience. Poetry shares with fiction the various kinds of
ironies that afflict human beings. These are verbal irony, situational irony, and
dramatic irony.
Verbal Irony, Through Word Selection, EmphasiZes
Ambiguities and Discrepancies
e
1-
0
1-
At almost any point in a poem, a poet may introduce the ironic effects of language itself-verbal irony. The poem "she being Brand I -new," by K.K Cummings, is built on the double meanings derived from the procedures of
breaking in a new car. Indeed, the entire poem is a virtuoso piece .of double entendre. Another example of verbal irony is seen in Theodore Roethke's "My
Papa's Waltz," in which the speaker uses the name of this graceful and stately
dance to describe his childhood memories of his father's whirling him around
the kitchen in wild, boisterous drunkenness.
Life's Anomalies and Uncertainties Underlie Situational Irony
)
F
Situational irony is derived from the discrepancies between the ideal and the actual. People would like to live their lives in terms of a standard of love, friendship, honor, success, and general excellence, but the irony is that the reality of
their lives often falls far short of such standards. Whereas in fiction ironic situations emerge from extended narrative, in poetry such situations are usually at a
high point or climax, and we must infer the narrative Circumstances that have
gone on before. Thomas Hardy, in "The Workbox," skillfully exploits an ironic
situation between a husband and a wife.
764
~
Chapter 18 - Tone: The Creation of Attitude in Poetry
THOMAS HARDY (1840-1928)
The Workbox
QUEST!<
1.
1914
"See, here's the workbox, little wife,
That I made of polished oak."
He was a joiner, o ofvillageo life;
She came of borough o folk.
2.
cabinetmaker
He holds the present up to her
As with a smile she nears
And answers to the profferer,
"'Twilllast all my sewing years!"
5
4.
5.
"I warrant it will. And longer too.
'Tis a scan dingo that I got
OffpoorJohn Wayward's coffin, who
Died of they knew not what.
"The shingled pattern that seems to cease
Against your box's rim
Continues right on in the piece
That's underground with him.
3.
10
The c
15
hum a
force!
yond
"And while I worked it made me think
Of timber's varied doom:
One inch where people eat and drink,
The next inch in a tomb.
tion t
wood
esc a I
20
"But why do you look so white, my dear,
And turn aside your face?
You knew not that good lad, I fear,
Though he came from your native place?"
"How could I know that good young man,
Though he came from my native town,
When he must have left far earlier than
I was a woman grown?"
"Ah, no. I should have understood!
It shocked you that I gave
To you one end of a piece ofwood
Whose other is in a grave?"
"Don't, dear, despise my intellect.
Mere accidental things
Of that sort never have effect
On my imaginings."
Yet still her lips were limp and wan,
Her face still held aside,
As if she had known not only John,
But known of what he died.
THE WORKBOX. 3, 4 village, borough: A village was small and rustic; a borough was larger and more sophisticated. 10 scantling: a small leftover piece of wood.
poen
emot
Drar
and
25
In a<
veals
cirn
pect
30
de a<
sian
wife
he 1
also
dra1
35
40
Sati
fall
oftc
Chapter 18 - Tone: The Creation of Attitude in Poetry
765
QUESTIONS
1.
2.
:binetmaker
3.
5
4.
5.
10
15
20
Who does most of the speaking here? What does the speaker's tone show about
the characters of the husband and the wife? What does the tone indicate about
the poet's attitude toward them?
What do lines 21-40 indicate about the wife's knowledge ofJohn and about her
earlier relationship with him? Why does she deny such knowledge? What does
the last stanza show about her? Why is John's death kept a mystery?
In lines 17-20, what irony is suggested by the fact that the wood was used both
for John's coffin and the workbox?
Why is the husband's irony more complex than he realizes? What do his words
and actions show about his character?
The narrator, or poet, speaks only in lines 3-7 and 37-40. How much of his explanation is essential? How much shows his attitude? How might the poem have
been more effectively concluded?
"The Workbox" is a domestic drama of deception, cruelty, and sadness.
The complex details are evidence of situational irony, that is, an awareness that
human beings do not control their lives but are rather controlled by powerful
forces-in this case by both death and earlier feelings and commitments. Beyond this domestic irony, Hardy also emphasizes symbolically the direct connection that death has with the living. As a result of the husband's gift made of the
wood with which he has also made a coffin for the dead man, the wife will never
escape being reminded of this man. Within the existence imagined in the
poem, she will have to live with regret and the constant need to deny her true
emotions, and her situation is therefore endlessly ironic.
Dramatic Irony Is Built on the Ignorance of Characters
and the Greater Knowledge of Readers
25
30
In addition to the situational irony of "The Workbox," the wife's deception reveals that the husband is in a situation of dramatic irony. He does not know the
circumstances of his wife's past, and he does not actually know-though he suspects-that his wife is not being truthful about her earlier relationship with the
dead man, but the poem is sufficient to enable readers to draw· the right conclusions. By emphasizing the wood, the husband is apparently trying to make his
wife uncomfortable, even to the point of extracting a confession from her, but
he has only his suspicions, and he therefore remains unsure of the truth and
also of his wife's feelings. Because of these uncertainties Hardy has deftly used
dramatic irony to create a poem of great complexity and pathos.
35
•
~,TONE AND SATIRE
40
more so-
Satire, an important genre in the study of tone, is designed to expose human
follies and vices. In method, a satiric poem may be bitter and vituperative, but
often it employs humor and irony, on the grounds that anger turns readers away
766
Chapter 18 ...; Tone: The Creation of Attitude in Poetry
while a comic tone more easily wins agreement. The speaker of a satiric poem eithe.r; may attack folly and vice directly, or it may dramatically embody the folly or
vice and thus serve as an illustration of the subject of satire. An example of the
first type is the following short poem by Alexander Pope, in which the speaker
directly attacks a listener who has claimed to be a poet but whom the speaker
considers a fool. The speaker cleverly uses insult as the tone of attack.
ALEXANDER POPE (1688-1744)
Epigram from the French
1732
Sir, I admit your general rule
That every poet is a fool:
But you yourself may serve to show it,
That every fool is not a poet.
QUESTIONS
1.
What has the listener said before the poem begins? How does the speaker build
on the listener's previous comment?
2.
Considering this poem as a brief satire, describe the nature of satiric attack and
the corresponding tone of attack.
3.
Look at the pattern "poet," "fool," "fool," "poet." This is a rhetorical pattern (a,
b, b, a) called chiasmus or antimetabole. What does the pattern contribute to the
poem's effectiveness?
An example of the second type of satiric poem is another of Pope's epigrams, in which the speaker is an actual embodiment of the subject being attacked.
ALEXANDER POPE (1688-1744)
Epigram, Engraved on the Collar of a Dog which I Gave to His Royal Highness
I am his Highness' dog at Kew:o
Pray tell me sir, whose dog are you?
1738
the royal palace near London
QUESTIONS
1.
2.
Who or what is the subject of the satiric attack?
What attitude is expressed toward social pretentiousness?
Here the speaker is, comically, the king's dog, and the listener is an unknown dog. Pope's satire is directed not against canines, however, but against
human beings who pretentiously prize class above everything. The first line
ridicules those who claim social status that is derived, not earned. The second
it
fl
a
g
s
t
Carter - I Wanted to Share My Father's World
lem ei'Olly or
of the
peaker
peaker.
767
implies an unwillingness to recognize the listener until the question of rank is
resolved. Pope, by using the dog as a speaker, reduces such snobbishness to an
absurdity. A similar satiric poem attacking pretentiousness is "next to of course
god america i" by E. E. Cummings (Chapter 14), in which the speaker voices a
set of patriotic platitudes and in doing so illustrates cummings's satiric point
that most speeches of this sort are empty-headed. Satiric tone may thus range
widely, being sometimes objective, comic, and distant; sometimes deeply concerned and scornful; and sometimes dramatic, ingenuous, and revelatory. Al~
ways, however, the satiric mode aims toward confrontation and expose.
POEMS FOR STUDY
Jimmy Carter ......................... I Wanted to Share My Father's World, 767
Lucille Clifton ...................................................... homage to my hips, 768
Billy Collins ...........: ............................................................ The Names, 769
E. E. Cummings ............................................. she being Brand I -new, 770
Mari Evans ........................................................ I Am a Black Woman, 771
Seamus Heaney ........................................................ Mid-term Break, 772
r build
Langston Hughes .............................................. Theme for English B, 773
X. J. Kennedy ............................................,................. John. While Swimming in the Ocean, 775
ckand
Abraham Lincoln ............................................................................... My Childhood's Home, 775
Sharon Olds ............................................................................................. The Planned Child, 776
~rn
(a,
, to the
Michael Ondaatje ........................................................................... Late Movies with Skyler, 777
Robert Pinsky ............................................................................................................... Dying, 779
Alexander Pope ............................................... ;... From Epilogue to the S,atires, Dialogue I, 780
Salvatore Quasimodo ........................................................................................... Auschwitz, 781
's eping at-
Anne Ridler ................................................................................................... Nothing Is Lost, 783
Theodore Roethke ..................................................................................... My Papa's Waltz, 784
Jonathan Swift ..................................................................... A Description of the Morning, 784
David Wagoner ....................................................................................... My Physics Teacher, 785
C. K. Williams ...................................................................................................... Dimensions, 786
William Butler Yeats ............................................................................... When You Are Old, 787
,ondon
JIMMY CARTER (b. 1924)
I Wanted to Share My Father's World
q. un~ainst
line
cond
t
This is a pain I mostly hide,
but ties of blood, or seed, endure,
and even now I feel inside
the hunger for his outstretched hand,
a man's embrace to take me in,
the need for just a word of praise.
I despised the discipline
he used to shape what I should be,
"
1995
5
Hughes - Theme for English B
10
773
In the porch I met my father cryingHe had always taken funerals in his strideAnd Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow.
5
The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram
When I came in, and I was embarrassed
By old men standing up to shake my hand
15
And tell me they were "sorry for my trouble,"
Whispers informed strangers I was the eldest,
Away at school, as my mother held my hand
20
10
In hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs.
At ten o'clock the ambulance arrived
With the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses.
15
Next morning I went up into the room. Snowdrops
And candles soothed the bedside; I saw him
For the first time in six weeks. Paler now,
25
Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple,
He lay in the four foot box as in his cot.
No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear.
30
20
A four foot box, a foot for every year.
QUESTIONS
1.
a slave revolt
·een the Allies
in South Vietween UN and
2.
3.
What is the situation of the poem? Who is the speaker? Why has he been called
home? What are his responses to the circumstances at home?
How old was the speaker's brother at the time of the accident? How do you
know? When you read line 19, what do you at first make of the "poppy bruise"?
Describe your responses to the last four lines of the poem the first time you read
them. What clues in the earlier part of the poem prepare you for these final
three lines? Do they sufficiently prepare you, or does the final line come as a surprise? Why is the poem unrhymed until the final two lines?
)Wdoes "in
Htitudes of
lANGSTON HUGHES (1902-1967)
w does the
•tic or pes-
Theme for English B
For a photo, seep. 1608.
1959
The instructor said,
Go home and write
a page tonight.
And let that page come out of youThen, it will be true.
I wonder if it's that simple?
I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston-Salem.
I went to school there, then Durham, then here
5
774
Chapter 18 - Tone: The Creation of Attitude in Poetry
to this college on the hill above Harlem. o
I am the only colored student in my class.
The steps from the hill lead down to Harlem,
through a park, then I cross St. Nicholas,
Eighth Avenue, Seventh, and I come to theY,
the Harlem Branch Y, where I take the elevator
up to my room, sit down, and write this page:
It's not easy to know what is true for you or me
at twenty-two, my age. But I guess I'm what
I feel and see and hear. Harlem, I hear you:
hear you, hear me-we two-you, me talk on this page.
(I hear New York, too.) Me-who?
10
20
Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love.
I like to work, read, learn, and understand life.
I like a pipe for a Christmas present,
or records-Bessie,o bop,o or Bach.
0
I guess being colored doesn't make me not like
the same things other folks like who are other races.
So will my page be colored that I write?
Being me, it will not be white.
But it will be
a part of you, instructor.
You are whiteyet a part of me, as I am a part of you.
That's American.
Sometimes perhaps you don't want to be a part of me.
Nor do I often want to be a part of you.
But we are, that's true!
As I learn from you,
I guess you learn from mealthough you're older-and whiteand somewhat more free.
This is my page for English B.
THEME FOR ENGLISH B. 9 college ... Harlem: a reference to Columbia University in the Columbia Heights
section of New York City. The other streets and buildings mentioned in lines 11-14 refer to specific places
in the same vicinity. 24 Bessie: Bessie Smith (ca. 1898-1937), American jazz singer, famed as the "Empress
of the Blues." bop: a type of popular music that was in vogue in the 1940s through the 1960s. Bach: Johann
Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), German composer, considered the master of the baroque style of music.
QUESTIONS
l.
What is the tone of the speaker's self-assessment? What does the tone indicate
about his feelings toward the situation in the class and at theY?
2.
What tone is implicit in the fact that the speaker, in response to a theme assignment, has composed a poem rather than a prose essay?
3.
What is the tone of lines 21-24, where the speaker indicates his likes? In what
way may the characteristics brought out in these lines serve as an argument for
social and political equality?
30
35
40
Chapter 18 - Writing about Tone in Poetry
1rent matter)ne indicate
an everyday
derstand the
)lywhen you
. idealistic, reJeaker's char-
'I descriptions
\t characters?
itude toward
te, (2) rejoice
lition, (4) be>les of noble
;e?
t, polysyllabic
or especially
tone?
.e. Consider
mp directly
condescenn the work?
tship of the
y? Does the
hing?Why?
rial attitude
irony? If so,
)W is the sittuations, or
f certain faote respect,
Jdes to the
references,
lectively remse in any
:ed ofread·ns indicate
rns normal
789
and standard or slang and substandard? What is the effect of these patterns? Are
there unusual or particularly noteworthy expressions? If so, what attitudes do
these show? Does the author use verbal irony? To what effect?
3. HUMOR. Is the work funny? How funny, how intense? How is the humor
achieved? Does the humor develop out of incongruous situations or language, or
both? Is there an underlying basis of attack in the humor, or are the objects of
laughter still respected or even loved despite having humor directed against them?
4. IDEAS. Ideas may be advocated, defended mildly, attacked, or ridiculed .
Which attitude is present in the work you have been studying? How does the
poet make his or her attitude clear-directly, by statement, or indirectly,
through understatement, overstatement, or the language of a character? In
what ways does the work assume a common ground of assent between author
and reader? That is, are there apparently common assumptions about religious
views, political ideas, moral and behavioral standards, and so on? Are these common ideas readily acceptable, or is any concession needed by the reader to approach the work? For example, a major subject of Arnold's "Dover Beach"
(Chapter 15) is. that absolute belief in the truth of Christianity has been lost.
This subject may not be important to everyone, but even an irreligious reader or
a follower of another faith may find common ground in the poem's psychological situation or in the desire to learn as much as possible about so important an
institution as religion.
5. UNIQUE CHARACTERISTICS. Each work has unique properties that contribute
to the tone. For example, Roethke's "My Papa's Waltz" is a brief narrative in
which the speaker's recollected feelings about his father's boisterously drunken
behavior must be inferred from understatement. Hardy's "Channel Firing"
(Chapter 16) develops from the comic but also absurd idea that the sounds of
cannons being fired from ships at sea are so loud they could wake up the dead.
Be alert for such special circumstances in the poem you are considering, and as
you plan and develop your essay take them into account.
Your conclusion may summarize your main points and from there go on to
any needed definitions, explanations, or afterthoughts, together with ideas reinforcing earlier points. If you have changed your mind or have made new realizations, briefly explain these. Finally, you might mention some other major
aspect of the work's tone that you did not develop in the body.
DEMONSTRATIVE STUDENT ESSAY
The Tone of Confidence in"Theme for English B" by
Langston Hughes 0
"Theme for English B" grows from the situational irony of racial differences
as seen by the speaker, an African-American college student. This situation might
easily produce bitterness, anger, outrage, or vengefulness. However, the poem
osee p. 773 for this poem.
790
[1)
[2]
[3)
[4]
[S]
Chapter 18 - Tone: The Creation of Attitude in Poetry
contains none of these. It is not angry or indignant; it is not an appeal for revenge
or. revolution. It is rather a declaration of personal independence and individuality.
The tone is one of objectivity, daring. occasional playfulness. but above all. confidence.* These attitudes are made plain in the speaker's situation, the ideas, the
poetic form, the diction, and the expressions.t
Hughes's poetic treatment is objective, factual. and personal. not emotional
or political. The poem contains a number of factual details: The speaker is black in
an otherwise all-white college English class. He has come from North Carolina
and is now living alone at the Harlem YMCA, away from family and roots. He is
also, at 22, an "older'' student in the first-year classroom. All this is evidence of disadvantage, yet the speaker does no more than present the facts objectively, without comment.
Hughes's thoughts about equality--the idea underlying the poem--are presented in the same objective, cool manner. The speaker writes to his instructor as
an equal, not as an inferior. His idea is that all people are. the same, regardless of
race or background. In defining himself, therefore, he does not deal in abstractions, but emphasizes that he, like everyone else, has ordinary likes and needs,
and that his abilities and activities are like those of everyone else. By causing the
speaker to avoid emotionalism and controversy, Hughes makes counterarguments difficult if not impossible.
The argument for equality is carried out even in Hughes's actual use of the
poetic form. The title here is the key, for it does not promise the most exciting of
topics. Normally, in fact, one would expect nothing much more than a short prose
theme in response to an English assignment, but a poem is unexpected and
therefore daring and original, particularly one like this that touches on the topic of
equality and identity. The wit, originality, and skill of the speaker's use of the form
itself demonstrate the self-confidence and self-sufficiency that underlie the theoretical claim for equality.
Hughes's diction is also in keeping with the poem's confidence and daring.
Almost all the words are short and simple--of no more than one or two syllables-showing the speaker's confidence in the truth and power of his ideas. This high
proportion of short words reflects a conscious attempt to keep the diction clear
and direct A result is that Hughes avoids any possible ambiguities, as the following words show:
Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love.
I like to work, read, learn, and understand life.
I like a pipe for a Christmas present,
or records--Bessie, bop, or Bach. (lines 21-24)
With the exception of what it means to "understand lite:• these words are free of
emotional overtones. They reflect the speaker's confident belief that equality
should replace inequality and prejudice.
A number of the speaker's phrases and expressions also show this same
confidence. Although most of the language is simple and descriptive, it is also
playful and ironic. In lines 18-20 there seems to be a deliberate use of confusing
*Central idea.
trhesis sentence.
I<
s
[6)
[7)
Con
Bee:
stud
tics)
cen1
er's
attit
cal
con
(ap
in t
tur
spo
Chapter 18 - Writing about Tone in Poetry
language to bring about a verbal merging of the identities of the speaker, the instructor, Harlem, and the greater New York area:
tl for revenge
individuality.
>Ve all. confi1e ideas. the
10t emotional
:er is black in
)rth Carolina
roots. He is
:lence of qistctively, with-
Harlem, I hear you:
hear you, hear me--we two--you, me talk on this page.
(I hear New York, too.) Me--who? (lines 18-20)
[G]
and daring.
o syllables-IS. This high
:liction clear
s the follow-
One may also find a certain whimsicality in the way in which the speaker treats
the irony of the black-white situation:
So will my page be colored that I write? (line 27)
3m--are preinstructor as
egardless of
.I in abstrac, and needs,
causing the
ounterargual· use of the
;t exciting of
short prose
:pected and
1 the topic of
l of the form
lie the theo-
791
[7]
Underlying this last expression is an awareness that, despite the claim that people are equal and are tied to each other by common humanity, there are also
strong differences among individuals. The speaker is confidently asserting
grounds for independence as well as equality.
Thus, an examination of "Theme for English B" reveals vitality and confidence. The poem is a statement of trust and an almost open challenge on the personallevel to the unachieved ideal of equality. Hughes makes this point through the
deliberate simplicity of the speaker's words and descriptions. Yet the poem is not
without irony, particularly at the end, where the speaker mentions that the instructor
is "somewhat more free" than he is. "Theme for English B" is complex and engaging.
It shows the speaker's confidence through objectivity, daring, and playfulness.
WORK CITED
Hughes, Langston. "Theme for English B!' Literature: An Introduction to Reading
and Writing. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts and Henry E. Jacobs. 7th ed. Upper
Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2004.773-74.
Commentary on the Essay
; are free of
1at equality
v this same
·e, it is also
)f confusing
Because this essay embodies a number of approaches by which tone may be
studied in any work (situation, common ground, diction, special characteristics), it is typical of many essays that use a combined, ecl<~ctic approach. The
central idea is that the dominant attitude in "Theme for English B" is the speaker's confidence, and that this confidence is shown in the similar but separable
attitudes of objectivity, daring, and playfulness.
Paragraph 2 deals with situational irony in relation to the social and political circumstance of racial discrimination (see approach 1, p. 788). Paragraph 3
considers the objectivity with which Hughes considers the idea of equality
(approach 4).
Paragraph 4 shows how a topic that might ordinarily be taken for granted,
in this case the basic form or genre of expression, can be seen as a unique feature of tone (approach 5). The paragraph contrasts the expected student response (no more than a brief prose essay) with the actual response (the poem
792
Chapter 18 - Tone: The Creation of Attitude in Poetry
itself, with its interesting twists and turns). Since the primary tone of the poem
is that of self-confidence, which is the unspoken basis for the speaker's assertion
of independence and equality, the paragraph stresses that the form itself embodies this attitude.
Paragraphs 5 and 6 consider how Hughes's word choices exhibit his attempts at clarity, objectivity, playfulness, and confidence (approach 2). The attention given in these paragraphs to Hughes's simple, direct diction is justified
by its importance in the poem's tone.
The concluding paragraph stresses again the attitude of confidence in the
poem and also notes additional attitudes of trust, challenge, irony, daring, and
playfulness.
c~ecia/ ,c/opt'cy/rl/' 'ff1•tir/fc;" anrt,/ ~yrrmmt
a boat .%ne~ in _Cf!oettvt
c7
1.
Consider "homage to my hips," "she being Brand I -new," "The Workbox," and
"The First-Rate Wife" as poems about love. What similarities do you find? That is,
do the poets state that love creates joy, satisfaction, distress, embarrassment,
trouble? How does the tone of each of the poems enable you to draw your conclusions? What differences do you find in the ways the poets either control or do
not control tone?
2.
Consider these same poems from a feminist viewpoint (see Chapter 33). What
importance and value do the poems give to women? How do they view women's
actions? Generally, what praise or blame do the poems deserve because of their
treatment of women?
3.
a. Consider the tone of Roethke's "My Papa's Waltz." Some readers have concluded that the speaker is expressing fond memories of his childhood experiences with his father. Others believe that the speaker is ambiguous about the
father and that he blocks out remembered pain as he describes the father's boisterousness in the kitchen. Basing your conclusion on the tone of the poem
alone, how should the poem be interpreted?
b. In your library, find two critical biographies about Theodore Roethke published by university presses. What do these books disclose about Roethke's childhood and his family, particularly his father? On the basis of what you learn,
should your interpretation of the tone of "My Papa's Waltz" be changed or unchanged? Why?
4.
Write a poem about a person or occasion that has made you either glad or angry.
Try to create the same feelings in your reader, but create these feelings through
your rendering of situation and your choices of the right words. (Possible topics: a
social injustice, an unfair grade, a compliment you have received on a task well
done, the landing of a good job, the winning of a game, a rise in the price of
gasoline, a good book or movie, and so on.)
5.
What judgments about modern city life do you think Leger conveys in his painting The City (Insert II-8)? If the tone of paintings can be considered similar to poetic tone, in what ways is The City comparable to the presentation of detail in
Eliot's "Preludes" (Chapter 16), Blake's "London" (Chapter 15), Sandburg's
"(
w
6.
1'
e
r
7.
8.