Mood in poetry refers to the emotional undertone that the poet conveys in a work. It is the feeling created by the writer for the reader, and it is what happens within a reader because of the tone the writer used in the poem. Mood is significant in poetry because it can create a feeling or emotional response in the reader.

Poets can create mood in a poem in three main ways:

• Setting: The location where the piece occurs can directly affect the mood of a story or poem. For example, a story set in a flowering garden will likely elicit feelings of happiness and peace, while a story set in a dark, scary forest might bring feelings of sadness or fear.
• Imagery: Sensory words are often used in poetry to convey meaning and directly impact the poems mood. Words that convey feelings of color bring to mind familiar smells or mirror the sounds of the item, all impacting the poems mood.
• Diction: The word choices used in the poem can create the mood of a poem. Words have strong emotional weight, so poets often use words that convey strong emotions to create a mood in the poem.

Mood is at the root of all poetry, and it is essential because it taps into the readers everyday lives, the divine, the sublime, and everything in between and tries to put them into words. Without mood in poetry, the words on the page would be bland, meaningless, and perhaps even purposeless.