An Approach to Analyzing Poetry:
Tone and DIDLS
DIDLS: The Key to TONE
 TONE= writer’s or speaker’s attitude toward the subject and
the audience.
 While it sometimes difficult to comprehend, to misinterpret
tone is to misinterpret meaning!
 We will practice analyzing the
Diction
Images
Details
Language and
Structure
in order to determine tone in poetry
Diction
 Consider what words the poet DID choose to use
 What other words could have been used?
 What other words would NOT work in place of the word
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used?
For example:
Laugh: guffaw, chuckle, giggle, cackle, snicker, roar, chortle
Old: mature, experienced, antique, relic, ancient
Self-confident: proud, egotistical, stuck-up, haughty, smug
Images
 Vivid appeals to enhance our understanding through the use
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of the senses
What does the poet focus on in a sensory way?
What images does he/she include?
What images does he/ she LEAVE OUT?
NOTE: Images differ from details in the degree to which
they appeal to the senses
Details
 Facts that are included OR those that are omitted
 The speaker’s perspective shapes what details are given and
which are not,
 What do the details imply?
 What is the connotation of the details included?
 NOTE: Details are small facts; they differ from images in
that they don’t have a strong sensory appeal.
Language
 The OVERALL use of language: formal, clinical, colloquial,
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slang, etc.
Consider language to be the entire body of words used in a
text, not simply isolated bits of diction.
What is the overall impression of the language?
Does it reflect education?
Is it plain? Ornate? Figurative?
Structure
 How a sentence is constructed affects what the audience
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understands.
Are the sentences: Choppy? Flowing? Filled with use of
caesura? Chiasmus? Parallel construction?
What emotional impression do they leave?
Consider:
Parallel structure: connects ideas, feelings, emotions
Short: punchy, intense, passionate or flippant
Long: distracting, reflective, abstract, depth of thought
Loose: main idea at beginning; periodic: point at the end
Inverted order: creates a questioning or a tension
TONE SHIFTS
 Key Words: But, yet, nevertheless, although
 Punctuation
 New stanzas
 Sharp changes in diction
 Varying lengths of lines
DIDLS
 Create and complete a chart for this poem:
Lines/
TONE
My Papa’s
Waltz
Diction
Images
Details
Language
Structure