Tone in Poetry

In the living creature assignment, the illustrator incorporates juxtaposing pre- and post-origin story setting, characterization via humanity-avoidant thoughts and self-internalizing symbolism to showcase that humanity’s cruelty towards non-human-like beings can incite self-imposed isolation, fear of judgement and reveal the being’s innate tendency towards stability, ultimately exposing that humanity’s cruelty leads to isolative behaviors to protect one’s mental peace and achieve a comfortable, mundane life. 

Sonnet 143: The speaker of Sonnet 143 wants the women to pay attention to him instead of abandoning him. This is apparent via the speaker's thoughts and feelings that he expresses through the lines “but if thou catch thy hope, turn back to me,” in which the speaker wishes that his maiden turns back and pays attention to him. We can also assume that the speaker is a very needy individual that is willing to settle for the bare minimum. From the lines where the speaker says his lover is chasing after something that is flying in front of her,  we can come to the conclusion that this flying object in front of her might be another man especially because themes of cheating on their spouse or loved one was common during Shakesphere’s time. The “babe” or the narrator says to just look back and pay a little attention to him instead of wishing for her not to pay attention to the flying object at all. 

The two-headed calf: We can make an assumption that the subject  of this poem is a very grateful and calm cow through his content actions of lying with his mother and the speech where the speaker describes the serene nature around him. The subject of this poem must be very young and naive since he does not recognize that the farm boys will commit cruel actions toward him. His action of peacefully lying showcases that he does not recognize the dangers before him. The cow’s actions reveal the broader themes of being a fool that cannot recognize danger and being present in the current moment. 

Sonnet 71: In this poem the speaker doesn’t want his maiden to truly forget his presence. The passive aggressive tone that the speaker uses in the lines “for I love you” while also saying “no longer mourn me when I am dead” shows that the speaker loves and values his lover dearly and would most likely not want her to forget. This is further supported by the speech in the couplet where the speaker reveals that he wants her to forget him so that society doesn’t mock her when he passes away. The speaker views themself as lowly as apparent by the dialogue that he wishes for her to forget him since he thinks that society will judge her for being with a man like him. 

The Unknown Citizen: In this poem the speaker is mocking how society uses numbers to measure perfection and evaluate happiness. This is apparent in the speech where the speaker describes the different sections of reports in which the subject has received excellence. In the lines, “Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd: Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard,” the speaker uses a sarcastic tone to mock the numbers that are used to measure happiness by saying that the numbers would definitely be a measure of happiness. The individual’s happiness is only measured by obeying these rules and his separate emotions beyond numbers are not taken into account. We can also assume that the speaker lives in a dystopian society set into the future as evident by their speech where they say terms like “union reports” and “social psychology workers” which are unknown to modern people. This poem also has the common theme of dystopian society’s surveillance of everything.