The best way to think of tone in a poem is to imagine how it would be spoken and what mood you think the speaker would be in. There will be clues to the tone not just in the language but in the ...

Dexter defines The Galilean Suite as tone poems, but while Holst’s inspiration for The Planets was astrological, this work is influenced by what we know about the moons’ geology.

As well as symphonies, the tone poem and descriptive overture were popular as pieces of stand-alone orchestral music that evoked anything from a painting or poem to a feeling of nationalistic fervour.