Question

How do "I Sit and Look Out" and "First they came for..." compare in terms of tone and mood? How do these elements support the theme of each poem?

Answer 1

Fior the answer to the question above, the two excerpts compare very similarly in terms of tone and mood because both excerpts play on the sympathy of the reader. Both excerpts have the same tone, which is regretful and sorrowful. The mood of the two excerpts is dark. These elements support the theme of each poem by enforcing the sorrow and regret of each poem. Both excerpts play on the empathy of the reader by using dark and sorrowful vocabulary terms and phrases. 
An example of how the two excerpts compare similarly in terms of tone and mood is that in each poem, the narrator uses vocabulary and phrases such as "there was no one left to speak for me" and "famine at sea" or "degradations upon laborers" and words such as "agony", "poor", "silent", and "meanness".  All of these words are dark, regretful, sorrowful, and melancholy in both tone and mood, reinforcing the idea that both excerpts compare similarly in terms of tone and mood.