(IC) Lesson Topic 4: Tone

Tone is the attitude that an author takes toward the audience, the subject, or the character. Tone is conveyed through the author's words and details.

We all experience tone in everyday life. A speaker's placing of emphasis, tone of voice, facial expression, and even his gestures all help the listener to determine the speaker's meaning and attitude. The voices of poetry, however, must be written to produce all those effects that a speaker, face-to-face with his audience, creates by tone, gesture, and stance. Tone in poetry comprises the attitudes of the poet toward his or her subject and toward his or her audience, as they can be inferred from the poem.

Read the poem "The Road Not Taken" Links to an external site. by Robert Frost. What is the author's tone in this poem? Do you think the speaker took the less traveled road? What was the speaker's attitude about this choice? What personal choices does this poem remind you of? How does this poem reflect the theme of individuality vs. conformity?

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