Talking About Theme and Tone..
Tone and theme are closely
related. In the Norton Introduction to Literature,
Boone and Mays refer to theme as, “not simply a work’s subject or its topic; it
is a statement about that topic” (Boone & Mays, 475), and refer to tone as,
“the poem’s attitude or feelings towards the theme” (Boone & Mays, 475). This
easily allows us to understand their relationship. Without a topic or theme, it
is hard for a poet to say something with his or her poem. The same happens when
there is no tone. If there is no feeling connected to the poem, then the
statement is not completely communicated to the reader. Theme as well as tone
are essential components for writing a poem and communicating with it an idea
feeling and a feeling.
If you were to listen to a
title, “She Dwelt Among the Untrodden
Ways”, you would not recognize what the poem is about. You might say that
it is about a woman, but what else would you be able to say? If you read
another title saying, “Stop All the Clocks, Cut Off the Telephone”, anything? How about a song named,
“Footprints”? Would you say it is a biography? This is the reason why theme and
tone are one. The relationship between these three pieces of art is that they
are all written and spoken in a sad tone. Without saying it out loud, they all
talk about losing someone that is their theme.
“She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways” by William Wordsworth, talks
about a man who lost a person nobody noticed but that meant a lot to him. He
writes, “She lived unknown, and few could know when Lucy ceased to be; but she
is in her grave, and, oh, the difference to me!” (Wordsworth, 9-12). A sad tone
and topic displayed, not on the first words for easy connection between the
title and the content, but on the content itself. W. H. Auden in his “Stop
All the Clocks, Cut Off the Telephone” poem writes, “Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead scribbling on the
sky the message He Is Dead, put crepe bows round the white necks of the public
doves, let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves” (Auden, 5-8). In
this poem Auden expresses sadness and the end of the world for him after losing
an important person. This same idea and feeling is shared in the T.O.K song,
“Footprints”. The lyrics say, “Hurry up and come back was the last thing she
said to her son the day his life was taken she didn't know he wouldn't come
back he died from the bullet of a gun and now her little boy is gone”. This
song too reflects sadness and loss in its lyrics but it must be noted that
without theme and tone the effect of the words would not be the same.
As
seen through this artistic works of different authors, both in poetry and
music, theme and tone are essential parts when writing. Feelings and ideas are
communicated not only through the words but also through the messages within
those words. This is why theme and not must be part of written works.
read the poems:
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