tone and mood

The tone and mood work hand in hand, and create an environment for the reader. The reader often has a strong connection to the poem, and the mood makes that connection even stronger. A reader wants to know how to feel when reading. Poems like "Out Out," by Robert Frost show offer the reader this connection through its strong language like "Buzz saw snarled and rattled." The reader is thrust into a mood of heightened awareness and a feeling of something not being right. As the poem continues, the mood will waver slightly with softer words, but eventually hits a hard, and somewhat terrifying mood when the boy dies, and everything is back to normal. The mood of the poem is strikingly off-setting that the reader will feel deeply throughout. The tone and mood are the central feeling of a poem or literary work. This feeling is what the reader will attach themselves with as they read.