Meaning and Tone Practice
Directions: Read each poem and then answer the following questions.
Heat
By Hilda Doolittle

O wind, rend1 open the heat,
Cut apart the heat,
Rend it to tatters2.

Fruit cannot drop
Through this thick air --
Fruit cannot fall into heat
That presses up and blunts
The points of pears
And rounds the grapes.

Cut the heat --
Plough through it,
Turning it on either side
Of your path.

1. rend: to tear or rip apart
2. tatters: ragged clothing, fabric, or paper

1. What is this poem about?

2. What is the speaker's tone?