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

This brief effusion I indite, And my vast wishes send,

•• 1837

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!

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760 Chapter 18 - Tone: The Creation of Attitude in Poetry

QUESTIONS

1. 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"?

2. 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?

3. 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 0 just in time;

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•ver all ;hould ~ss the ttizing text to 1e, de­al and based ·tone.

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Chapter 18 - Tone: The Creation

But someone still was yelling out and stumbling And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime ...

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Dim, through the misty panes and thick greene light, A5 under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

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In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

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;

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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. 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.

QUESTIONS

1. What is the scene described in lines 1-8? What expressions does the speaker use

to indicate his attitude toward the conditions? 2. What does the title of the poem mean? What attitude or conviction does it em-

body? 3. Does the speaker really mean "my friend" in line 25? In what tone ofvoice might

this phrase be spoken? 4. 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?

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

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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 preventing just 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 con­

stantly 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?!' to­

getherwith other comments that extend to humor and, sometimes, to hostility. In poet­

ry 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 W0rkbqx:· (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 to the

.satires" fncluded. inthi~ chapt)r, satiri~ally describesdepl0rabl~ 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: .

Yet may this verse (if such:a verse remain)

··Show there was one who held it in disdain.

e of the n makes ntrolled

;ary; the ~m does he poet common ·ns, and . for ex~ ead,he ath suf­:e, paci­tdeath. Epoem 1m only nilitary ~edless,

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Chapter 18 - Tone: The Creation of Attitude in Poetry 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 com­

panionable 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.

~,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

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

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 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.

He holds the present up to her As with a smile she nears

And answers to the profferer, "'Twilllast all my sewing years!"

"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.

"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.

"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.

cabinetmaker

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.

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2.

3.

4.

5.

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Chapter 18 - Tone: The Creation of Attitude in Poetry 765

QUESTIONS

1. 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?

2. What do lines 21-40 indicate about the wife's knowledge of John 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?

3. In lines 17-20, what irony is suggested by the fact that the wood was used both for John's coffin and the workbox?

4. Why is the husband's irony more complex than he realizes? What do his words and actions show about his character?

5. 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

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.

• ~,TONE AND SATIRE

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 1738

I am his Highness' dog at Kew:o Pray tell me sir, whose dog are you?

QUESTIONS

1. Who or what is the subject of the satiric attack?

the royal palace near London

2. 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

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Carter - I Wanted to Share My Father's World 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

Langston Hughes .............................................. Theme for English B, 773

X. J. Kennedy ............................................ , ................. John. While Swimming in the Ocean, 775

Abraham Lincoln ............................................................................... My Childhood's Home, 775

Sharon Olds ............................................................................................. The Planned Child, 776

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

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

JIMMY CARTER (b. 1924)

I Wanted to Share My Father's World

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

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Hughes - Theme for English B 773

In the porch I met my father crying-He had always taken funerals in his stride­And Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow.

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

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

In hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs. At ten o'clock the ambulance arrived With the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses.

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,

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.

A four foot box, a foot for every year.

QUESTIONS

1. 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?

2. 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"?

3. 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?

lANGSTON HUGHES (1902-1967)

Theme for English B

The instructor said,

Go home and write a page tonight.

1959

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

For a photo, seep. 1608.

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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?

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 white-yet 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?

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t, polysyllabic or especially

tone?

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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

Chapter 18 - Writing about Tone in Poetry 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 Hughes0

"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 Chapter 18 - Tone: The Creation of Attitude in Poetry

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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

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Chapter 18 - Writing about Tone in Poetry 791

language to bring about a verbal merging of the identities of the speaker, the in­structor, Harlem, and the greater New York area:

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)

One may also find a certain whimsicality in the way in which the speaker treats [G] the irony of the black-white situation:

So will my page be colored that I write? (line 27)

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

[7] 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

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.

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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

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