What is the tone of the poem “dreams” by linda pastan?

The tone of “Dreams” by Linda Pastan is melancholic and nostalgic.

Explanation:

The melancholic tone can be found in every paragraph of the poem. Each of these paragraphs mentions something someone misses. She says she misses her lover and her father waits eternally for someone. The nostalgic tone can be found in the first paragraph of the poem when she says: “where the children we were, rock in the arms of the children we have become”. This means that the author misses when she was younger.  

Erica is suffering from situational anxiety.

Explanation:

Situational anxiety is different from Generalized Anxiety Disorder, which is a continuous state of worrying that's independent from the situation. Situational anxiety is caused by new elements in a situation, or completely new situations. Those changes cause the person to temporarily lose their ability to stay calm. In Erica's case, one element has changed when compared to previous situations. Even though she is used to giving presentations, she is not used to giving them to her co-workers. The new element is what is making her nervous about it. Maybe she fears being judged by her peers more harshly than by her students, for instance.