COMPONENTS OF

POEMS
Meaning and Idea, and Tone

Meaning and Idea

The meaning of a poem is the experience it

expresses
It is the ingredient that can be separated
out in the form of a prose paraphrase
The prose meaning maybe a story, a
description, a statement of emotion, a
presentation of human character or some
combination of these

Meaning and Idea

To paraphrase a poem means to restate it

in different language so as to make its
prose sense as plain as possible
Some poems are not directly concerned
with ideas but many poems are concerned
at least partially with presenting ideas
Poets should do more than merely moralize

Tone

Tone is the writers or speakers attitude

toward the subject, the reader or herself or
himself
It is the emotional colouring or emotional
meaning of the work
In speech it can be detected by the tone of
voice in which something is said

Tone

A correct interpretation of tone is key to

understanding the full meaning
It is impossible to fully understand a poem
unless we determine whether the attitude it
displays is playful or solemn, mocking or
reverent, calm or excited.
Tone is the end product of all the elements
in poetry

Tone

It can be revealed by connotation, imagery,

metaphor, irony, understatement, rhythm
and sentence construction
Recognition of tone requires an increasing
familiarity with the meanings and
connotations of words, alertness to the
presence of irony and other figures of
speech and above all careful reading

Tone

Some examples of tone are

Resigned, pessimistic, optimistic, grim,
indifferent, horrified, realistic, fanciful (not
based on fact)

Work Cited

Arp, Thomas, and Greg Johnson. Perrines

Sound and Sense. An Introduction to
Poetry, 11th Edition. Boston: Thomson
Wadsworth, 2005.