Tone and Diction

The varying diction of "Sex without Love," "We Real Cool" and "Back When All was Continuous Chuckles" creates a unique tone for each poem. In "Back when all was Continuous Chuckles" the diction is almost child like, with words such as freaky, silly billies, and ghouls. The sentences are short and sound like the exchanging of an inside jokes. The tone is that of one reminiscing. But towards the end there is a shift of tone. The jokes are no more and seriousness takes over when the speaker reveals that she would become all to familiarized with the graveyard and the tombstones that lie there, "names we later came to recognize". There is a hollowness as she recalls that they had to "pretend" the chuckles were there. In "We Real Cool" most of the words are verbs such as sing, lurk, left, drink, jazz  and die. The tone is care free. It is like someone with a short attention span is speaking because the sentences are short. They do not have time to dwell on one thing for too long because they are too busy living it up. In "Sex without Love" the diction is simple and descriptive. She compares images to ice skaters, wine and roads. The tone is pondering and even blunt. She questions a lot and brings up the negative consequences of sex without love, like a mother giving up her child and the isolation people feel.