Tone/Mood

The tone of a poem, novel, or play is essential to the profound impact it has on the reader. Tone has a deep-seated connection to the theme of the poems "To an Athlete Dying Young" by A.E. Housman and "Ulysses" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. While the tone of the first shifts from celebratory to melancholy, the mood of the latter contains an unchanging lament.
In the first stanza of A.E. Housman's poem, the reader can sense a freshly victorious tone that screams of merriment, and suddenly it shifts to a gloomy disposition. Even with the use of similar wording, Housman is able to convey the tonal shift that occurs between the peak of the athlete's career and his death. Through the rest of the poem, though the tone remains mournful of the athlete, it also has the aura of admiration toward the young man. "Smart lad, to slip betimes away..." (Housman 9). The author communicates a complex tone in that the young athlete is appreciated for all he did for the duration of his life while it also comes to light that he is no more.
Similarly, but in thematic opposition, "Ulysses" by Tennyson highlights the problems of an old man who is grieving the lengthiness of his life. The entire poem carries a heavy disappointed and almost tired mood in describing the life of an old man. "It little profits that an idle king...Matched with an aged wife, I mete and dole" (Tennyson 1-3). The narrator's seems to be almost desperate for relief and ultimately, death. With this, Tennyson projects the effects of tone onto the reader as ideal to the revelation of theme.
Both authors use tone as a steady means of disclosure to the reader in terms of the overall theme. Mood can give the poem an emotional touch that is necessary to actually feel the depth of each word.