Elements of Poetry
Tone
Exercise XV: Read “Holy Sonnet XIV” by John Donne, “When I Was One-andTwenty,’ by A.E. Houseman, “I’m Nobody! Who Are You?” by Emily Dickinson, and
“We Wear the Mask,” by Paul Laurence Dunbar.
1.) What is the tone of each poem?
a. “Holy Sonnet XIV” _________________
b. “When I Was One-and-Twenty” _________________
c. “I’m Nobody! Who Are You? _________________
d. “We Wear the Mask” _________________
2.) “Holy Sonnet XIV” is full of apparent paradoxical, or contradictory, ideas. List
some of these. What is the poet pleading for?
3.) In the first line, Donne addresses the “three person’d God.” In the second and
fourth lines, he uses a trio of verbs: “knock, breathe, shine,” and “break, blow,
burn.” To which person of the trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) might the
following verbs correspond? Explain your answers with one full sentence each.
a. Knock/ break:
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b. Breath/ blow:
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c. Shine/ burn:
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4.) Summarize the advice of the wise man in “When I Was One-and-Twenty.”
5.) What lesson has the poet learned by the end of the poem?
6.) What is the rhyme scheme of “We Wear the Mask?” What is the “mask” in
Dunbar’s poem?
7.) What might Dickinson be criticizing in her poem?
8.) Why do you think the subject of Dickinson’s poem is glad to be a “nobody”?
(Note: during her life, Emily Dickinson was extremely reclusive.) What might
be attractive about being a “nobody”? Why might it be attractive to be reclusive?
9.) Read Galations 1:10. What sorts of things might Dickinson’s “admiring bog”
want to see in our lives? (In other words, what kinds of things does the world
seem to value?) What kinds of conflicts might we experience if we tried to please
both God and other people?
Exercise XVI: Read “On His Blindness” by John Milton. Scan the poem, marking the
meter and rhyme scheme. Draw a line between the octave and the sestet.
1.) What is the “problem” identified in the octave? What is the “solution” given in
the sestet?
2.) Rewrite this poem as a prose paragraph using modern, everyday language. Make a
KWO and then paraphrase the poem from that. This method can help you
understand a poem’s meaning.
Exercise XVII: Read the sonnets by William Shakespeare. Scan the sonnets to find
the meter and the rhyme scheme.
1.) Define these terms as they are used in the context of the poems:
a. bark____________________
b. tempest ____________________
c. impediment ____________________
d. temperate ____________________
2.) Paraphrase either sonnet below:
An explication goes beyond a paraphrase An explication attempts to understand the
theme of a poem and then to explain how all the elements of a poem contribute to the
whole. When you write an explication, you discuss all the elements of poetry we have
studied: imagery, analogy, tone, and any other pertinent techniques. The explication
identifies the form used as well as the rhyme scheme and meter, if any. Then is discusses
the other elements used and explains how they contribute to the meaning of the poem.
3.) Read “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus. Write an explication of the poem
using the following format (use one to three sentences for each part):
a. Part 1: identify and explain the form of the poem and how the poem may
vary from form.
b. Part 2: explain the content in terms of the form,
c. Part 3 – Note any literary devices or poetic techniques. Indicate whether
they seem to underscore the theme.
d. Part 4 – note any historical allusions and explain their significance.
e. Part 5 – discuss the tone of the poem and the feeling with which the
reading is left after reading it.