Tone in poetry refers to the attitude of the poet towards the subject matter, speaker, or audience of a poem. It is sometimes referred to as the "mood" of the poem, and can be established through the poems vocabulary, metrical regularity or irregularity, syntax, use of figurative language, and rhyme. The tone of a poem is interpreted by the reader and can range from formal to informal, aggressive to defensive, sentimental to critical, and more. Tone allows the reader to better understand and even relate to the speaker's attitude towards the subject of the poem.
To identify the tone of a poem, one should consider the words used, punctuation, and the general emotional weather of the poem. The best way to classify the tone is to determine if it is generally positive or negative, and then think more specifically about the attitude of the speaker towards the subject matter. There are many types of tones in poems, including formal, friendly, and optimistic. The tone is at the root of all poetry, and without it, the words on the page would be bland, meaningless, and perhaps even purposeless.
