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Mood

Concept
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Mood refers to the emotional atmosphere or psychological tone a poem creates in the reader through diction, imagery, and sound.

Explore this topic in depth (1)

How to Write About a Poem — Writing about poetry is not a matter of finding hidden answers or naming as many techniques as possible. It is the practice of making a thoughtful claim, supporting it with well-chosen details, and explaining how those details create meaning.

Detailed Definition
Mood in poetry refers to the emotional atmosphere or prevailing feeling evoked through diction, imagery, rhythm, and tone; distinct from the speaker’s emotion (tone), mood shapes the reader’s affective experience—e.g., melancholy in elegies or suspense in dramatic monologues.
Example
Example in poetry:
Gothic dread in Poe’s “The Raven”; pastoral serenity in Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely”; urban anxiety in Eliot’s “The Waste Land”; nostalgic melancholy in Heaney’s “Mid-Term Break”; ecstatic joy in Whitman’s “Song of Myself”
Additional Notes
Mood is emotional atmosphere created by diction, imagery, sound. Distinguish from tone (author's attitude). Study how vowel sounds, syntax, and word choice shape reader's emotional response. Central to lyric poetry.
Also Known As
Atmosphere Emotional tone Feeling Affective quality Tone humour
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