neutral tones

• "we stood by the pond that winter day"


  "winter"- pathetic fallecy, emotionally cold to eachother
• "they had fallen from ash"


  "fallen"- potentially moving out of autumn into winter represents change in relationship
• "the smile on your mouth was the deadest thing"


  juxtoposition between life and death empathises the pain caused by love
• "and a pond edged with greyish leaves"
• what is the structure?

  cyclical- represents how he is repeatively hurt by love since the day at the pond
• what is the rhyme scheme?

  enclosed rhyme- represents how the memory of the past returns to affect the Hardy in the present
• what are 3 themes of neutral tones?

  bitterness, pessimism, lifelessness
• what is the context?

  hardy was unlucky in relationships throughout his life which explains the depressing tones in his writing
• how would readers feel?

  readers may commiserate hardy