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A short class with Sarah and her students. The other ways are under More.
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Before we look at the poem, tell me the difference between tone and mood.
Tone is the speaker's attitude, and mood is the feeling the poem creates in the reader.
Good. What is the speaker's attitude when he steps into the church?
Offhand and a bit bored. He lists the furniture as if he had seen it all before.
And what mood do we feel as readers?
Hushed. The thud of the door and the heavy silence make the church feel empty and still.
Which small detail adds embarrassment to the tone?
The cycle-clips. He has no hat, so his gesture of respect is awkward.
Stanza 2 ends on a flat, dismissive verdict. How does stanza 3 change the tone?
It becomes honest. He admits that he often stops at churches and does not know what he is looking for.
What does that do to the mood?
It becomes reflective. We stop laughing and start thinking along with him.
In stanza 4 he imagines people touching a stone or gathering herbs. How would you describe his attitude?
Curious and a little amused.
And the mood?
A bit eerie, like a folk tale, with night and ghosts.
How does the picture of the ruin change the tone?
It becomes sombre. Decay goes on a little more each week and nobody remembers what the place was for.
Yet the speaker includes himself among the last visitors. What does that show?
Honesty, and a bit of self-mockery. He does not pretend to be superior.
How would you describe the tone of the last stanza?
Grave and dignified. The closing sentence is long and slow.
Is it a religious tone?
No. It is serious but restrained. He respects the church without claiming faith.
tone is the speaker's attitude and mood is the atmosphere felt by the reader, and the two can differ.
stanzas 1 and 2 are wry and self-mocking with a hushed, mildly comic mood, and the casual manner is a defence against a place that unsettles him.
stanza 3 is candid and puzzled, and the shift from I to we turns an anecdote into a meditation.
the speculation about superstition is curious and amused, while the picture of the ruin is sombre and elegiac, but humour and honesty continue.
stanza 7 is earnest, dignified and restrained, with a mood of quiet reverence that does not become pious.
the speaker is both drawn to the church and unable to believe, and this mixture of feelings explains the shifting tone.
Naming tone through diction: in stanza 1 the vague, careless words for the sacred objects create an offhand tone, because the speaker wants to seem unimpressed.
Linking a detail to mood: the thud of the door and the heavy silence in stanza 1 make the mood hushed, as if the church were holding its breath.
Explaining a shift in tone: at the start of stanza 3 the speaker admits that he often stops at churches, so the self-mocking pose gives way to a candid, puzzled tone and the mood becomes reflective.
Describing the ending: in stanza 7 the long closing sentence (lines 58-63) and the weighty vocabulary create a grave, dignified tone, while the modest final reason, the dead buried around the church, keeps it restrained and unsentimental.
A joke, a doubt, a ruin, a stand: four tones in the speaker's hand; wry, then honest, then sad, then grave, with a quiet end the poem gave.
Think of a school trip to an old church. At first the class jokes and whispers. Then the teacher asks what will happen to the building in fifty years, and the class grows thoughtful. Finally everyone falls silent. The mood has moved from loud to quiet while the building has not changed at all, and the speaker's journey through the poem is the same.
We Can See Sad Ghosts stands for Wry (stanzas 1 and 2), Candid (stanza 3), Speculative (stanza 4), Sombre (stanzas 5 and 6) and Grave (stanza 7).
T.A.M.E. - Tone is the speaker's Attitude; Mood is the Effect on the reader
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What is the difference between tone and mood?
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What is the tone of stanzas 1 and 2?
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How does the tone change at the opening of stanza 3?
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Which two words best describe the tone of the ruin passage?
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What is the mood of the last stanza?
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Why is the tone of the final stanza called restrained?
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The attitude of the speaker or poet towards the subject, shown through word choice, rhythm and imagery.
The atmosphere or feeling that a poem creates in the reader.
Dry and mildly mocking in an understated way, like a humorous remark made with a straight face.
Making fun of oneself, as the speaker does when he admits his ignorance and plays at reading a lesson.
Sad and reflective in the manner of a lament for something lost; the word suits the picture of the ruined church.
Expressing something important in a deliberately plain or restrained way.
Having mixed or conflicting feelings about the same thing; the speaker is drawn to the church yet cannot believe.
Belonging to everyday conversation rather than formal writing.
This lesson traces the tone and mood of Philip Larkin's "Church Going". It shows how the poem moves from a casual, self-mocking visit, through honest questioning and a sombre vision of ruin, to a grave and quietly respectful close.
Tone is the speaker's attitude; mood is the atmosphere the reader feels. In "Church Going" the tone shifts as the speaker's thinking deepens. In stanzas 1 and 2 he is offhand, wry and a little embarrassed, and the mood is hushed and mildly comic. In stanza 3 the mask slips and the tone becomes candid and puzzled. In the middle stanzas the tone is speculative and gently sceptical about superstition, then sombre as a ruin is imagined, with a mood of melancholy and unease. In the last stanza the tone is earnest, grave and unsentimental, and the mood is one of quiet reverence. The lesson shows how diction, rhythm, sentence length and questions create each shift, and how to describe them precisely in an exam answer.
Tone and mood are related but different. Tone is the attitude of the speaker, and behind him the poet, towards the subject: wry, anxious, ironic, grave. Mood is the atmosphere a poem creates in the reader: hushed, eerie, melancholy, peaceful. "Church Going" is a good poem for this topic because its tone changes. A first-time reader hears a joking, slightly bored visitor; by the end, the same speaker sounds serious and almost reverent, yet he never turns pious. Tracing these changes stanza by stanza is the key to answering questions on tone and mood.
The speaker is casual about everything. He makes sure that no event is under way, lists the furnishings in a flat inventory and uses vague, careless words for the sacred objects. This is the tone of a man who has seen many churches and wants to seem unimpressed. But the silence is described as heavy and impossible to ignore, and he removes his cycle-clips in a clumsy gesture of respect, which gives the tone a touch of embarrassment. In stanza 2 the tone is playful and self-mocking: he admits that he knows nothing about the roof, reads from the lectern like an actor in a part, is laughed at by the echoes and ends with a flat, dismissive verdict. The mood is hushed and slightly comic, with an undercurrent of unease.
The mask slips. The speaker admits that he often stops at churches and that he never knows what he is looking for. The tone becomes honest, thoughtful and uncertain, and the mood changes from comic to reflective. The move from I to we gives the poem a wider and graver horizon. Some humour remains in the images of cathedrals preserved as museums and of churches left to the weather and to grazing animals, but the questions are now real.
The speaker considers folk beliefs that may survive round the church. His tone is curious and gently sceptical: he describes the customs of touching a stone, gathering herbs and watching for the dead with amused detachment, without either endorsing the beliefs or attacking them. The mood is slightly eerie and folkloric, a world of night-time customs and ghosts.
The picture of the ruin makes the tone more sombre and elegiac. Decay is presented as gradual and unstoppable, and the mood becomes melancholy and desolate. Yet the speaker does not give up his dry humour when he imagines the possible last visitors, and he includes himself among them, which shows honesty and self-mockery. The tone becomes gentler and more personal when he admits that he cannot put a value on the building but takes quiet pleasure in its silence. The mood settles from gloom into quiet.
In the last stanza the tone is earnest, grave and dignified. The language is more abstract and weighty, and the six-line closing sentence (lines 58-63) moves slowly and steadily. The mood is one of quiet reverence and calm. The tone is also restrained: the speaker does not claim faith, and the final reason he gives, the dead buried around the church, is modest and almost grudging. The seriousness is real but unsentimental.
The overall tone is ironic on the surface and serious underneath. Humour is the speaker's defence: it lets him approach a subject that both embarrasses and moves him. The movement from joking to seriousness is less a change of heart than the gradual lowering of that defence. The speaker is ambivalent throughout, drawn to the church yet unable to believe, and the shifting tone is the sound of that mixed feeling.
Stanzas 1 and 2: offhand, wry, self-mocking, awkward, hushed, mildly comic. Stanza 3: candid, puzzled, uncertain, reflective. Stanza 4: speculative, amused, folkloric. Stanzas 5 and 6: sombre, elegiac, honest, melancholy. Stanza 7: grave, earnest, dignified, restrained, reverent. In an answer, always pair a tone word with the detail that creates it.