THE TONE LIST
Here is a list of tones that students may find in poems. It is not comprehensive, and students should be
encouraged to add to it as needed; as the teacher, you should also feel free to trim it to suit your students and
class level. Keep in mind that the longer the list is, the more nuanced and powerful your students’ emotional
vocabulary will be.
abashed
bristling
disrespectful
horrified
provocative
solemn
abrasive
brusque
distracted
humorous
questioning
somber
abusive
calm
doubtful
hypercritical
rallying
stern
ref lective
straightforward
acquiescent
candid
dramatic
indifferent
accepting
caressing
dreamy
indignant
reminiscing
stentorian
acerbic
caustic
dry
indulgent
reproachful
strident
resigned
stunned
admiring
cavalier
ecstatic
ironic
adoring
childish
entranced
irreverent
respectful
subdued
affectionate
child-like
enthusiastic
joking
restrained
swaggering
aghast
clipped
eulogistic
joyful
reticent
sweet
allusive
cold
exhilarated
languorous
reverent
sympathetic
amused
complimentary
exultant
languid
rueful
taunting
angry
condescending
facetious
laudatory
sad
tense
anxious
confident
fanciful
light-hearted
sarcastic
thoughtful
apologetic
confused
fearful
lingering
sardonic
threatening
apprehensive
coy
flippant
loving
satirical
tired
approving
contemptuous
fond
marveling
satisfied
touchy
arch
conversational
forceful
melancholy
seductive
trenchant
ardent
critical
frightened
mistrustful
self-critical
uncertain
argumentative
curt
frivolous
mocking
self-dramatizing
understated
audacious
cutting
ghoulish
mysterious
self-justifying
upset
awe-struck
cynical
giddy
naïve
self-mocking
urgent
bantering
defamatory
gleeful
neutral
self-pitying
vexed
begrudging
denunciatory
glum
nostalgic
self-satisfied
vibrant
bemused
despairing
grim
objective
sentimental
wary
benevolent
detached
guarded
peaceful
serious
whimsical
biting
devil-may-care
guilty
pessimistic
severe
withering
bitter
didactic
happy
pitiful
sharp
wry
blithe
disbelieving
harsh
playful
shocked
zealous
boastful
discouraged
haughty
poignant
silly
bored
disdainful
heavy-hearted
pragmatic
sly
brisk
disparaging
hollow
proud
smug
Abandoned Farmhouse By Ted Kooser
Analysis of Literary
Techniques
He was a big man, says the size of his shoes
on a pile of broken dishes by the house;
a tall man too, says the length of the bed
in an upstairs room; and a good, God-fearing man,
says the Bible with a broken back
on the floor below the window, dusty with sun;
but not a man for farming, say the fields
cluttered with boulders and the leaky barn.
A woman lived with him, says the bedroom wall
papered with lilacs and the kitchen shelves
covered with oilcloth, and they had a child,
says the sandbox made from a tractor tire.
Money was scarce, say the jars of plum preserves
and canned tomatoes sealed in the cellar hole.
And the winters cold, say the rags in the window frames.
It was lonely here, says the narrow country road.
Personification: “say the
rags”
Something went wrong, says the empty house
in the weed-choked yard. Stones in the fields
say he was not a farmer; the still-sealed jars
in the cellar say she left in a nervous haste.
And the child? Its toys are strewn in the yard
like branches after a storm--a rubber cow,
a rusty tractor with a broken plow,
a doll in overalls. Something went wrong, they say.
Ambiguity: “Something went…”
Ted Kooser, "Abandoned Farmhouse" from Sure Signs: New and Selected Poems. Copyright © 1980
by Ted Kooser. Reprinted by permission of University of Pittsburgh Press.
Source: Sure Signs: New and Selected Poems (Zoland Books, 1980)
On this and the following pages, fill out the empty boxes, using the Analysis of
Literary Techniques vertical box (to comment on USAGE of technique by the poet)
and the Poetry Terms (to define the techniques being used).
Place the comments next to the line…as in the examples above.
Ambiguity: Definition
The Snappy Guide to Scanning a Poem
Adapted by Dr. K from materials at
http://www.english.bham.ac.uk/staff/tom/teaching/firstyear06/howtoscan.htm and
http://www.amittai.com/prose/meter.php
Note: This Guide is heavily based on, and deeply indebted to, Stephen Fry's excellent book, The Ode
Less Travelled, which anyone interested in poetry should read. It also draws from John Hollander’s
Rhyme’s Reason, an equally informative and entertaining book.
If you’ve grown up on a steady diet of free verse, it probably comes as a nasty surprise to you that
not all poetry in English is written that way. Robert Frost told the students at Milton Academy in 1935
that “Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down,” and many poets before and since
have chosen to meet the challenge of meter and rhyme when creating their works. Part of being an
English major (and taking the GRE subject exam, etc., etc.) is learning how to “scan” a poem—that is,
to determine its meter and its rhyme scheme. In doing so, you’ll gain insight not only into what the
poet wanted to emphasize in the poem but also be able to connect it to other works (by the poet and
others) in the same metrical and prosodic forms, helping you to place a poem in its historical period
and circumstances. So learning to play poetic “tennis” by mastering meter and rhyme is a big part of
your development as critical readers of literature. Let’s look at the two main areas separately, starting
with meter.
Name that foot
The basic meter of English poetry is iambic: two syllables to a foot. That’s part of our Indo-European
language heritage, since Indo-European featured short syllables as building blocks for words. Note that
the names follow a consistent pattern: an adjective describing the shape of the foot or basic stress
pattern, and a noun telling you how many feet are in a line. Thus, iambic pentameter tells you that
you have five iambs in your line. Pretty simple, once you know what the feet are. And since there only a
handful of stress patterns, once you get them down, you just have to count the syllables in the line and
you’re in business.
OK, so what do these funny words mean?
The basic six sound patterns in English have names of Greek etymology and look like this:
iamb
(_ /)
_
/_
/
_
/_
/
_/
/
_
/
_
The
falli
out
of
fait
frie
ren
is
of
love
ng
hful nds, ewi
ng
trochee
(/ _)
/_
/_
/
_
/_
Double,
double
toil
and
trouble
anapest
(_ _ /)
_
_
/_
_
/
_
_/
I
am
monar
of
all
I
survey
ch
dactyl
(/_ _)
/
_
_
/__
Take
her
up
tenderly
spondee
pyrrhic
-and the
/
whit
e
/
brea
st
(/ /)
(_ _)
-of
the
/
dim
/
sea