American Masters CPB
Elements of Poetry

TONE VS. MOOD

Tone and mood are similar in that they both establish emotions. Deeper meaning can be revealed by identifying the tone and mood of a text.

Watch the video to learn about tone and mood, then do the "Highlight It" activity below. 

Keyboard Shortcut Action
Space Pause/Play video playback
Enter Pause/Play video playback
m Mute/Unmute video volume
Up and Down arrows Increase and decrease volume by 10%
Right and Left arrows Seek forward or backward by 5 seconds
0-9 Fast seek to x% of the video.
f Enter or exit fullscreen. (Note: To exit fullscreen in flash press the Esc key.
c Press c to toggle captions on or off

After watching the video about tone and mood and completing the "Highlight It" activity, answer the following questions: 

  • How would you describe the tone of “Caged Bird?”
  • How would you describe the mood of the poem?
  • There is a shift in the mood of the poem in the second stanza. Why does Angelou change the overall feeling of the poem in the second stanza? Why does it shift again in the final stanza?