1. In his "The Fall of the House of Usher," Edgar Allan Poe has created clear tone. Identify the tone, then examine and provide examples of diction, details, imagery, and syntax that create the tone .
During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country, and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher...I reined my horse to the precipitous brink of a black and lurid tarn that lay in unruffled luster by the dwelling...(with) vacant and eye-like windows.
Edgar Allan Poe from "The Fall of the House of Usher."
1. Color code the literary devices in the paragraph by using the following key:
red = diction
blue =details
purple =imagery
dark green =syntax
2. Choose three to five examples of each literary device listed above and explain connotation and the effect of the literary device on the tone.
Diction � Diction such as soundless, oppressively, and melancholy offers the connotation of hollow, and sadness. These examples help reinforce the tone because it implies attitude and with the different words the tone of the passages varies.
Details � Details such as unruffled and autumn offer the connotation of hollow and sadness. These examples help reinforce the tone because the facts given by the writer or speaker are used as support for the attitude or tone.
Imagery � Imagery such as dull, dark, dreary, precipitous, and lurid offer the connotation of hollow and sadness. These examples help reinforce the tone because the use of vivid descriptions or figures of speech that appeal to sensory experiences helps to create the author's tone.
Syntax � Sentence structure such as �, and key words offer the connotation of hollow and sadness. These examples help reinforce the tone because it aids the reader in telling them how to read the passage and the tone that the writer wanted to portray.