Reading Tone From Diction

The idea

Tone is built from word choice, so a tone question is answered from the words, not from the subject. First, set the subject aside: a poem about death can be mocking and a poem about love can be bitter. Second, collect the loaded words, the ones with strong connotations, and sort them into approving, disapproving and neutral. Third, notice the level of the language: high Latinate diction often signals ceremony or irony, plain Anglo-Saxon words often signal intimacy or force. Fourth, check for a gap between the words and the situation, because a grand word for a trivial thing is the mark of mock-heroic irony. Fifth, choose the answer whose adjective matches both the direction and the strength of what you collected, eliminating choices that are too strong or too weak. Pope's "dire offence" for the theft of a lock of hair is the classic gap: grand diction, small cause, so the tone is mock-heroic.