What Is The Mood Of The Poem By Billy Collins

• The words “fair” and “young” let the reader know the author was both young and pretty. These words give a delicate and soft feeling to the tone of the poem. They are pleasant, positive words that give a pleasant overcast to the poem.
• There are some words that do not add such pleasantry to the poem. The word “scorn” means to scold harshly or yell at. This word conveys the author’s frustration at people begging for her love. This in turn adds a negative feeling to the tone of the poem.
• The word “weeping” was used to describe the state of the men the author turned down. This too, adds a negative tone to the poem. The word “weeping” was used to show the distress of men and it conveyed negative emotions.
3)
• The author describes herself

as “fair” and “young”. These words give the image of a young attractive women. The knowledge of this explains why so many people fancied the author. From these words describing her physical attributes, I was able to visualize an attractive young women. The image is a pleasant one that adds a positive feeling to the poem.
• The words “weeping eyes” and “sighing hearts” produce a visualization of the men that the author has turned down.

The image is depressing because people are in a state of emotional distress and, in turn, that adds a depressing mood to the poem.
• The author describes her suitors’ requests for her love as “importune” which means to beg. This produces a visualization of men desperate and begging relentlessly for the lady’s love. The word “importune” heightens the sense of how attracted people were for the

author.
4)
The author described her physical appearance as fair and young. This is important because it explained why all suitors sought her love. This contributes to the emotional power of the piece because it adds vitality to the author.
The author describes the affect her rejections has had on others. She describes such affects in the following text:
“How many weeping eyes I made to pine in woe,
How many sighing hearts I have not skill to show,”
This gives the poem an emotional affect because it communicates the sorrow that the author has given other people. This, in turn, gives the poem a sorrowful, lost feeling.

5) The author never left out what happened with Venus' son.

Leaving this out makes the reader question whether or not she rejected him. Not adding what the author does with Venus' son adds a sense of mystery and hopefulness for the author to find love. I believe by adding what happened would change the mood of the poem from its original purpose. If she did find love, it would take away from the absence of love in the poem that helped to create a sad mood.
Also, throughout the poem the author is fair and young but she never described what happened after she was no longer beautiful. I believe this was to done to preserve the original mood and purpose of the poem.
6) The length of the sentences in the poem stays the same throughout the poem. This adds a sense of consistently throughout the poem. This consistently parallels the unchanging mood of the poem. The short sentences also adds a sense of calmness because they are easier to read. The short sentences quicken the pace of reading of the poem.
7)
Haughty: I believe this tone word would would match the poem because the reader had a sense of arrogance about her. She was proud of her beauty and had consistently turned people down. The follow text shows her pride and consistent rejection: “But I the prouder grew and still this spake therefore”. The reader may have believed she was too beautiful for anyone to deserve her

love.
Unhappy: This tone word ties into the sad, sorrowful feeling that the poem gave off. The author seems to be unhappy about all of suitors pursuing her and her general loneliness.