The Tone and Diction of James Still's Poem, "Heritage"

I shall not leave these prisoning hills Though they topple their barren heads to level earth And the forests slide uprooted out of the sky. Though the waters of Troublesome, of Trace Fork, Of Sand Lick rise in a single body to glean the valleys, To drown lush pennyroyal, to unravel rail fences; Though the sun-ball breaks the ridges into dust And burns its strength into the blistered rock I cannot leave. I cannot go away. Being of these hills, being one with the fox Stealing into the shadows, one with the new-born foal, The lumbering ox drawing green beech logs to mill, One with the destined feet of man climbing and descending, And one with death rising to bloom again, I cannot go. Being of these hills I cannot pass beyond. Tone:  The tone of a poem is the feel of it.  Tone can be dark and scary or light and happy or anywhere in between.  Diction:  Diction is the poet's word choice.  He could, when writing the poem, use sophisticated words or, he could use words that people use in everyday life.  If he was writing some type of happy, not-to-serious monologue poem, he would probably use words that people use everyday.  On the other hand if he was writing a dark and ominous monologue, he would probably use more urbane words to give the poem more of a scary sound.   The tone of this poem is dark and foreboding.   Mr. Still uses elevated diction which gives the poem more of a dark and sophisticated sound and feel.  If he were to talk like a country bumpkin and talk of the things that he was talking about, it wouldn't have had the same impact that the poem does and it would have sounded strange.