#8

The tone in "Crossing the Bar" is accepting and almost hopeful. The speaker is clearly about to die. He uses the sandbar as a metaphor for death. Once he's past the sandbar, he cannot turn back. When one describes death, a sad tone would be expected, but the speaker seems to be telling the people he's close to not to mourn. He tells them that he's going to meet God, and he's accepted that. Everything beyond the sandbar, I think, is heaven, so the speaker isn't sad that that's where he's headed. He doesn't use ominous or dark words to describe death, so his tone must be at least accepting if not hopeful.

#8

Okay so the chick from February is seriously unhappy, and that's what sets the theme. She actually really bugs me. The way she speaks to the cat makes her sound angry after the first few lines of the poem. At the end, she evens yells "Off my face!" at it. She just seems bitter about everything, and this attitude gives the poem a bitter, harsh feel. I understand why she's all angry, but she needs a chill pill. Anyway, the author creates the tone of the poem through her harsh diction and the punctuation she uses throughout the poem. Without those two, the point of the poem would be lost to the reader. How would we know she's bitter because she's all alone in the month of love?