Pathos is the quality in a poem that stirs sympathy, pity, sorrow, or another strong feeling in the reader. Poets create pathos through word choice, imagery, situation, and tone, often by focusing on loss, tenderness, suffering, or human vulnerability.
It is not just emotion in general; pathos is emotion that invites the reader to feel with the speaker or subject.
Example
The old dog waits by the gate at dusk,
one ear torn, one eye clouded with rain;
the child's small hand on the leash
does not know how to pull him home.
N/A
[n] a quality that arouses emotions (especially pity or sorrow); "the film captured all the pathos of their situation"
[n] a style that has the power to evoke feelings
[n] a feeling of sympathy and sorrow for the misfortunes of others; "the blind are too often objects of pity"