Tone & Mood In Literature | Definitions, Differences, & Examples

Tone and mood in literature are responsible for establishing “the atmosphere” in a piece of writing. They relate to two things — the attitude of the writer toward what is being written about and the emotions that are evoked in the reader while reading. 

The two might be closely associated with each other, but there are major and subtle differences, with much interdependence between them. Let’s examine the difference with a quick example from Walt Whitman’s famous poem “O Captain! My Captain!” (published in 1865): 

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,

The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,

The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,

While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;

                         But O heart! heart! heart!

                            O the bleeding drops of red,

                               Where on the deck my Captain lies,

                                  Fallen cold and dead.

The poem was written by Walt Whitman in 1865 after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. He relies on the analogy of comparing a head of state to the captain of a ship. One can say that it is a clichéd analogy. However, the poem works quite well.

First, as cliché as the analogy is, it is rather accurate. Taking the analogy one step further and portraying President Lincoln as lying dead on the deck of the ship after his assassination makes it even more true to life.

Second, the poem is written in a reverential and somber tone. Walt Whitman is famous for writing in free verse and a lack of rhyme. But here, we can see that he resorts to more formal verse patterns. The stanzas are arranged in a regular rhyming pattern of AABBCDED with regular and semi-regular meter. 

It’s as if the poet has departed from his use of free verse and has chosen formal verse patterns for a sad and solemn occasion. This would be comparable to someone dressing up in formal clothes for a funeral. So we can conclude that the tone of the poet toward his subject is one of reverence and deeply felt mourning. On the other hand, the mood evoked in the reader is one of sadness. 

We feel the grief and irony of a head of state who was able to successfully win a war (i.e., the American Civil War) and keep the United States from splitting into two separate countries not being able to enjoy the peace and victory that he was responsible for. 

In this article, I discuss more about the major differences between mood and tone and provide examples, including one from the Barbadian poet Kamau Brathwaite with his poem “Kumina”. 

Image of Kamau Brathwaite.

What are definitions for mood and tone? 

Mood can be described as the feelings evoked in the reader after reading a certain piece of literature. Tone, on the other hand, is the attitude of the writer toward the subject or issue being written about.

Now, these things are not clear cut. They rely on each other. The mood or intended mood that is evoked typically depends on the attitude of the writer toward the subject. Let’s look at a example from a poem by the Jamaican poet Antony McNeil, “Ode to Brother Joe” (1972): 

When he lights up a s'liff

you can't stop him,

and the door to God, usually shut,

gives in a rainbow gust.

. . . 

the drums start

Hail Selassie I

Jah Rastafari

and the room fills with the power

and beauty of blackness,

a furnace of optimism.

But the law thinks different.

This evening the Babylon catch

Brother Joe in his act of praise

and carry him off to the workhouse.

. . .

Who'll save Brother Joe? Hail

Selassie is far away

and couldn't care less,

and the promised ship

is a million light years

from Freeport.

The poem is written partially in Jamaican dialect or creole, and it is about a Rastafarian called Brother Joe, who practices his religion by smoking marijuana. This activity at the time would be illegal in Jamaica. McNeil’s attitude toward Brother Joe can be described as sympathetic yet condescending.

He feels sorry for Brother Joe. However, he sees his religion and religious activities as powerless and ineffectual. We see the condescending attitude toward Brother Joe in phrases like “Selassie is far away/and couldn’t care less.” Haile Selassie at the time would have been the ruler of Ethiopia, who is treated as a kind of messiah by Rastafarians.

The “promised ship” is a reference to the back-to-Africa beliefs that Rastafarians hold. They believe there can be no true freedom in the Americas and that true freedom lies in going back to Africa. Describing the promised ship as "a million light years/ from Freeport" is more or less describing or mocking Brother Joe and Rastafarians in general as delusional.

McNeil feels that the beliefs of the Rastafarians are too far-fetched and not worth much respect. However, he does feel sympathy for them. Consequently, his tone can be described as condescending and slightly derisive. On the other hand, the mood or intended mood evoked toward Brother Joe within readers is one of pity for Brother Joe. 

How mood and tone can reflect the inner feelings of characters

The mood and tone created by an author can also be used to represent the inner feelings of a character. Sometimes, an author will feel the need to be subtle about expressing ideas such as hidden emotions or misgivings or even foreshadowing future disaster. 

A good example of this is the way in which Charlotte Brontë writes about the weather in Jane Eyre (published in 1847): 

But what had befallen the night? The moon was not yet set, and we were all in shadow: I could scarcely see my master’s face, near as I was. And what ailed the chestnut tree? it writhed and groaned; while wind roared in the laurel walk, and came sweeping over us.

This passage is written from the perspective of Jane Eyre on the same night that she accepts Mr. Rochester’s proposal for marriage, and foreshadowing is used as a literary device here. The strong cold wind, dark night, and the chestnut tree that “writhed and groaned” are ill omens. The mood established in the passage is one of foreboding and anxiety. 

This foreboding may be based on Jane’s intuition that Mr. Rochester may be hiding dark secrets from her. The tone in which the narrator speaks can be described as slight puzzlement at the strange behavior of the night. In any event, Jane is correct in her internal misgivings and anxiety. The strange weather foreshadows the negative events that will take place in the novel.

We find out that Rochester is already married to an insane woman who is kept in his attic. So, the marriage to Jane is not possible. This wife sets Rochester’s house on fire before committing suicide and Rochester is left maimed and blind from it.  We can even go so far as to say that the wind roaring and "came sweeping over us" was the malevolent spirit of Rochester's "mad wife in the attic."

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Mood and Tone in Kamau Brathwaite’s “Kumina”

It would be useful to compare tone and moods in McNeil’s “Ode to Brother Joe” with Kamau Brathwaite’s Kumina (published in 2005). It might shed light on the various attitudes the writers have toward their subjects. You can also check out the poet's superb recitation of the poem featured by the Griffin Poetry Prize:

Kamau Brathwaite reciting "Kumina."

Just like “Ode to Brother Joe,” the poem is written in Jamaican dialect. However, it also includes idiosyncratic punctuation and capitalization, which is reminiscent of an avant garde poet such as E. E. Cummings: 

on the first day

of yr death it is quiet it is dormant like a doormat

no one-foot touch its welcome. its dust on the floor

is not disturb nor are the sleeping spirits of this house

i sit here in this chair trying to unravel Time so that it wouldn’t happen twine

The poet is writing about “Kumina,” an Afro-Jamaican tradition that involves communication with dead loved ones. It is written from the perspective of a mother who has lost her son to a careless driver in a car accident. 

She is participating in a ritual that would allow her son to communicate with her for consolation. The extract describes her mood on the day that her son has died. The mood here can be described here as the devastating stillness and quiet of grief and shock.

The poet gets this mood across with effective use of consonance, alliteration, and assonance. The shock of death is emphasized with the alliteration around the words beginning with “d” such as “death,” dormant,” and “doormat.” 

Assonance is obvious in the short vowel “o” sounds in words like “floor,” “doormat,” and “dormant.” They have the effect of highlighting the word dormant, which suggests the stillness of grief or mourning. 

Here is another extract from the poem: 

on the fifth day

after yr death. a young white rooster. white white white feathery & shining 

tail & tall

neigbour of sound from miles away in the next village

stands in the yard & from his red crown crows & crows & will not go away

The stanza above describes the fifth day after the son’s death. There has been a change in mood. The grief is there, but it is no longer silent. The mother sees a white rooster and believes this may be a sign of her son’s soul reaching out to her. 

This possibility excites her. We can see this in the epizeuxis or simple repetition that is used to describe the bird as “a young white rooster. white white feathery & shining” and the commotion and noise that it makes. This noise is the opposite of the stillness experienced on the first day after her son’s death. 

But this hope has not materialized and on the seventh day, the mother describes how the white rooster has been killed by stray dogs, throwing her into panic: 

on the seventh day

after  yr death

. . .

i am unhappy like the wind & tides are restless rivers

i can’t find you. i can’t find you. i cannot cannot cannot be console to dreams

the mad dogs of the pasture kill the cock & pillage

it. madwoman wind is scattering white screaming feathers’ petals’ pedals over all

the brunt & burnin ochre-colour land

The mood of hopeful excitement has now turned into one of frantic despair. We see this in the simple repetition of epimone (i.e., the repetition of short phrases/sentences) of the sentence “I can't find you.” Descriptions such as “madwoman wind . . . scattering white screaming feathers” also give us a good description of the poor mental state that the woman is in. 

On the ninth day, the mother makes contact with the soul of her departed son, and the tone is one of relief and comfort: 

on the nine/ff night

yu rise again from off the dead

.

i see you now & at the hour of yr o not soff not soffly dead

it is my pain it is my privilege. it is my own torn flesh torn fresh

o let me comfort us my chile. is not yr heart is broken

The poem has taken us through a roller coaster of emotions related to grief. We have examined the various moods evoked within the reader by the author’s style. What about the tone of the poet toward the subject he’s writing about in Kumina? 

In the case of McNeil, we saw a writer who used a condescending and slightly derisive tone toward the subject. In both poems, we see the main characters featured participating in Afro-Caribbean religious or spiritual traditions. 

McNeil keeps a distance and uses a third-person narrative. Brathwaite, on the other hand, is a man occupying the perspective of a woman and uses a first-person narrative. McNeil uses a tone that elicits sympathy and pity for Brother Joe, whereas Brathwaite shows deep empathy, respect, and dignity toward the grieving mother in the poem.  In short, Kamau does not simply observe, he identifies with the rite that the grieving mother goes through.

The Afro-Caribbean spiritual practice in Kumina isn’t simply escapism, as Mcneil suggests Rastafarianism is. As far as Kamau Brathwaite is concerned, it is an effective means for a mother to communicate and come to terms with grief and loss. This may help explain the difference in tone between the two poems.

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Cite this EminentEdit article

Antoine, M. (2025, June 07). Tone & Mood In Literature | Definitions, Differences, & Examples. EminentEdit. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/tone-mood-in-literature