Mood & Tone

1. Mood & Tone Mood is the overall feeling or atmosphere that a poem or story causes. The writer creates mood through the details or language they use. How do the author’s choices make the reader feel? The answer is the MOOD! Tone is when a writer’s attitude toward the subject or audience is reflected in the text. How does the writer seem to feel about the subject? The answer is the TONE!

2. Moods Can Be Positive or Negative Gloomy Violent Tense Heartbroken Painful Hopeful Cheerful Joyous Playful Peaceful

3. How Does a Writer Create Mood? The mood colors the entire piece of writing and creates a feeling in the reader. The length of the sentences, the words that are chosen, the punctuation used, and the sound of words all work to create the mood of a piece of writing.

4. We Also See Mood in Images • What mood does this image create? violent peaceful playful

5. What mood does this image create? gloomy painful cheerful

6. What mood does this image create? tension peacefulness

7. We Can See Mood in Our Surroundings • What mood is created in this room? playful tense hopeful

8. We Can See Mood in Movie Scenes • What mood is created in this scene? painful cheerful gloomy

9. Poets Create Mood in Their Poetry Chinese New Year It’s New Year’s Day in China Town, another year is counted down. Fireworks shoot showers of light lanterns wave burning bright. Children dance in the crowd, smiling faces cheer out loud. Dragons twist up and down, for it’s New Year’s Day in China Town.

10. Grace Before we even said grace He sat and filled up his face He gorged on salami Ate all the pastrami Then exploded with nary a trace

11. You’re Through With Us We’re leaving you, dear teacher For a grade that’s higher up You’ve suffered with us through the months ‘Twas hard and it’s been tough! You’re going to miss us desperately We’ll tell the world it’s so You’ll sob and moan with misery Your tears will gush and flow. Be brave, and face the future But we must tell you true That when we leave this class of yours We’re far more scared than you!

12. Little Boy Blue The little toy dog is covered with dust,   But sturdy and stanch he stands;And the little toy soldier is red with rust,   And his musket moulds in his hands.Time was when the little toy dog was new,   And the soldier was passing fair;And that was the time when our Little Boy Blue   Kissed them and put them there. "Now, don't you go till I come," he said,   "And don't you make any noise!"So, toddling off to his trundle-bed,   He dreamt of the pretty toys;And, as he was dreaming, an angel song   Awakened our Little Boy Blue---Oh! the years are many, the years are long,   But the little toy friends are true! Go To Next Slide To Finish Poem

13. Little Boy Blue Continued Ay, faithful to Little Boy Blue they stand,   Each in the same old place---Awaiting the touch of a little hand,   The smile of a little face;And they wonder, as waiting the long years through   In the dust of that little chair,What has become of our Little Boy Blue,   Since he kissed them and put them there.

14. Tone • While mood is the feeling that a piece of writing creates in a reader, tone is the writer’s attitude toward the subject or audience of the writing. • Look for clues in the language the writer uses to identify how the writer feels about the subject.

15. Example of Tone What is the subject of the poem? What clues tell the reader the poet’s attitude towards the subject? What is the tone? The Crocodile How doth the little crocodile Improve his shining tail, And pour the water of the Nile On every golden scale! How cheerfully he seems to grin! How neatly spreads his claws, And welcomes little fishes in With gently smiling jaws! Subject: Crocodiles Tone: Attitude towards crocodiles is they are dangerous.

16. My Shadow I HAVE a little shadow that goes in and out with me,   And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.   He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;   And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed. The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow—Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;   For he sometimes shoots up taller like an India-rubber ball,   And he sometimes gets so little that there’s none of him at all.      Go To Next Slide To Continue Poem

17. He hasn’t got a notion of how children ought to play,   And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way. He stays so close beside me, he’s a coward you can see;   I’d think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!      One morning, very early, before the sun was up,   I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;   But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head, Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed. What is the tone of “My Shadow”?

18. The Road Not Taken Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, Go To Next Slide To Continue Poem

19. And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. What is the tone of “My Shadow”?