Tone/Mood

The tone and mood of a literary work is the general sentiment of the piece. There are obvious tones-angry,sad,depressed,happy,etc-in most poems we have read. For example in Stafford's "Traveling through the Dark" the tone is dark and morbid. It begins with the mention of a dead deer and throughout the poem there is a haziness that lingers. The "warm exhaust turning red" adds to an eeriness in the mood and tone. And the attention given to the dead deer and its description such as "stood by the heap, a doe, a recent killing.... she had stiffened already, almost cold." adds to the depressing nature of the poem. These are just a couple examples. I leave the poem in a more saddened state.Tone and mood certainly give a piece a specific feeling which oftentimes impresses itself upon the reader.

Diction

Diction is the manner in which an idea is portrayed through speech. Language is of course the most crucial part of literary works. As seen in "Ozymandias" diction adds a great deal to a work. The lines "Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown/And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command" reveal this. It is really descriptive and vivid language which portrays an artistic view of a general idea that could be stated more simply. Diction is what adds artistic value to a work.

Imagery

Imagery is a literary tool that engages the senses. Imagery consisits of descriptions that help a reader better sense the way things look, feel, sound, smell, or taste in literature. "Traveling through the dark" is a poem in which imagery adds meaning. From the title which also begins the poem we immediately picture darkness. This poem is packed with strong images such as "a deer dead on the edge of the Wilson river road," "roll them into the canyon," "that road is narrow," "by glow of the taillight," "the heap," "almost cold," "large in the belly," "fingers touching her side," "warm exhaust turning red," etc. In almost every line of this poem there is something that lends itself to the larger picture-temperature, size, the way something is handled or experienced, position, etc- and the reader feels as if he is almost there. This is the major function of imagery.

Sounds of Poetry

The sounds of a poetry work set the tone, mood, and theme for the poem. The sounds of a poem are considered to be "the musical quality of poetry." In many poems rhyme scheme guides and alters the mood and overall meaning of the poem. In Housmans's "To an Athlete Dying Young"  the rhyme scheme creates a flow that the poem continues on until it changes pace, and slows, in the end because of different sorts of punctuation and a changed scheme. The sounds of the poem shift and alter the meaning, mood, and tone of the work.