Tone and Diction

1
Tone and Diction

• In the work of Sarah Piatt
• And Emily Dickinson

2
Sarah Piatt

• Lived in Washington DC, Ohio, and Ireland during
  Civil War
• Well-published in her lifetime
• Traditional themes complicated by point of view
• Accused of having sentimental subject matter
  despite an unsentimental style

3
Sarah Piatt

• Published widely in her time, esp. around Civil
  War era
• Lived in rural Kentucky, DC, Ireland, and Ohio
• Thought of as too enigmatic by critics
• Used dramatic realism and dialogue/monologue
• Wrote about marriage and children yet tried to
  deflate the sentimentality in her work

4
Piatts Portrait
5
On-line Cornell Library and the book Palace Burner

• Provides scans of clippings (Cornell)
• Situates her in her social context
• Raises questions about her poverty and obscurity

6
Giving Back the Flower

• How do you describe the tone of this poem?
• What strategies does she use to get her tone
  across?

7
Emily Dickinson

• Provides a counterpoint to Whitmans expansive,
  worldly style
• Represented by a persona of a reclusive genius
• Meter informed by hymns of the day
• Broke conventional strategies like punctuation,
  rhyme, accessibility

8
Her elegies

• What are the different tones present?
• Do any seem to be in a different voice than her
  usual one?
• How do these war poems differ from Piatts?