Apprehending Tones

Immediately having an conversation with someone it is easy to know how that person is feeling by the tone in their voice. The person could be sad   by the way their tone is presented or they can be happy if they have a smile on their face. While reading poems, the tone is not as obvious as an conversation. Glancing at words does not help the reader to fully understand the poems tone. To understand a poems tone, the reader would have to pay attention to the words and emotions conducted by the poets. Both poets Pat Mora and Countee Cullen use different tones but ones setting   remains constant .
The poem, “Elena,” by Pat Mora is about a Mexican women who moves with her family to the United States. The first line in the poem has negative tone, "My Spanish isn't enough." Immediately   the reader is brought into this poem assuming that the speaker believes that she is not good enough because she claims the word Spanish. If she had not acknowledge Spanish, the reader would believe that Spanish alone isn't enough. The next few lines the reader is taking back to Mexico, where the speaker is from. When the she talks of Mexico, it is with delight and fondness, shifting the tone of the poem. The speaker would "smile" (Line 2) at the sounds of her "little ones" (Line 3) as they would tell, "their jokes, their songs, their plots" (Line 5). These words enhance the tone of the setting as an enjoyable one. Then, with a dramatic turn the speaker says, "But that was in Mexico" (Line 7). The word 'but' gives the reader a hint that the tone of the speaker has change, going back to the tone in the very beginning line.
Living in the United States, the speaker's miserable tone results from the fact that she feels alienated from her children, but now they "go to American Schools and they speak English" (Line 8-9). English, a language she does not understand and is, "embarrassed at mispronouncing words" (Line 16). This barrier of language has broken off a major form of communication...