The careful reading of images can help students determine the tone of a poem. Have students look for all the images in a poem, particularly those near the beginning or those related to important events. Ask them to think about the associations that those images carry, and what tone or mood these associations have. For example, T. S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" begins by comparing the evening to "a patient etherized upon a table." Students should know immediately that this grotesque image associated with nature lends the poem an insincere or panicked tone.
Speakers of poems sometimes address the reader, a person or an object directly, signalling what the tone of the poem is. Ask your students to look for instances of direct address and to consider what tone is evoked in these passages. For example, Shelley's famous poem "Ode to the West Wind" begins, "O Wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being." In this line, the speaker addresses the wind directly, revealing his tone of reverence toward the wind.
Poems often contain short verbal cues that signal the speaker's tone. Notice that Shelley's poem begins with the word "O," a common cue that often precedes a direct address and suggests awe or respect toward someone or something. Many poems contain the cue "Ha!" which can signal sarcasm or insincerity. Another common verbal cue is "alas," which usually comes before the expression of regret. In this case, it generally means that the poem's tone is one of sadness.
The rhythm or meter of a poem can also help students in identifying tone. Have students read a poem written in regular iambic pentameter, where each line contains five successive groups of an unstressed and a stressed syllable. Ask them to look for moments in the poem that deviate from this meter, which could suggest a change in tone. Then, have them read a poem with a more frantic or unpredictable meter. Students will likely find that a poem with a more frantic meter has a more frantic tone about it.