Neutral tones

• “We stood by the pond that winter day”
• “We stood by the pond that winter day”


  pathetic fallacy

  Emotionally cold

  “We” inclusive pronoun, inability to accept loss

  “Pond” “stood”, still, lack of passion, unable to move on,
• “The sun was white, as though chidden of god”
• “The sun was white, as though chidden of god”

  Simile

  distorts nature, sun has been drained of passion and fire

  Personification, suns shock at demise of their love

  Religious imagery

  Speaker feels god disapproves of their decisions

  Or praying for Peace
• “the smile on your mouth was the deadest thing”
• “the smile on your mouth was the deadest thing”

  “Smile“ should indicate joy, relationship no longer fulfilling

  Juxtaposition between “smile“ and “deadest” shows speakers confusion

  ”mouth” intimacy and communication lost

  “Deadest” superlative, other signs of death yet insincere smile was the worst
• Structure

  Cyclical, juxtaposing the end of relationship, or mirrors everlasting pain

  Speaker unable to progress in life
• Context

  Hardy unlucky in relationships explains depressing tones
• Rhyme

  Enclosed rhyme, shows how past still returns to affect hardy
• Compare

  When we two parted, both speakers use morbid references to explain their sadness, semantic field of death

  Eden rock, light imagery

  Winter swans, colour imagery to show lack of warmth