The Widow's Lament in Springtime

Question 8, Tone. This one is too easy. The author creates a tone of intense sorrow. The first line itself mentions this emotion: "Sorrow is my own yard." The speaker is going through a period of extreme grief and is no longer able to find joy in anything. We get this sense pretty strongly just from word choice. Lament, Sorrow, and Grief are all mentioned in the poem. In addition, it isn't simply sadness that sets the tone; there is also that sense of longing reminiscence. The speaker can't help but look back on her life with her husband. She clings to her memories, which adds a sense of wanting to return to those palmy days to the tone. Furthermore, grief and sorrow do not totally sum up the emotional aspect of the tone. There is also that sense of a complete lack of any other positive emotion. The speaker says "the grief in my heart is stronger than they, for though they were my joy formerly, today I notice them and turned away forgetting." She is referring to how though the flowers (representing her past memories with the husband) once made her happy, now they only bring her sadness, and she is unable to find any positive aspect of life. This of course creates that final part of the tone of the poem: hopelessness.

And doesn't this just scream grief and depression?