Neutral tones - Thomas Hardy

• Themes:

  Loss, Longing, Heartbreak
• Tones:

  Neutral, Pessimistic, Melancholic
• Many of Hardy's poems were...

  pessimistic and dreary, and Neutral Tones was no exception
• Literal Summary:

  Narrator recalls the day when he realised his relationship ended, where he and his lover stood by a pond
• "we stood by...

  a pond that winter day"
• "we stood by a pond that winter day"

  • Passive Verb 'stood' implies lack of effort to fix relationship, and lack of energy
  • Past tense 'stood' establishes poem as memory and shows relationship is now over
  • Pathetic Fallacy of 'winter' sets cold and pessimistic tone
• "few leaves lay...

  in the starving sod"
• "few leaves lay in the starving sod"

  • Verb 'starving' hints at unrequited love and lack of time and effort put into relationship
  • Sibilance forms a tone of despair and desperation
  • Allusion to Autumn, symbolic of end of summer, suggests the relationship is dying as there is no light and energy in it
• "over tedious...

  riddle years ago"
• “over tedious riddles years ago"

  • Temporal Deixis 'years ago' implies they never got over an argument, and that their love has been dying for years
  • Adjective 'tedious' has harsh sound to express frustration, and conveys their relationship as tiresome and had become boring
• "your eyes on me...

  were as eyes that rove"
• "your eyes on me were as eyes that rove"

  • Past tense 'were' shows their love and connection is gone
  • Symbolism of 'eyes' could be a biblical allusion to eyes being the Gateway to the Soul; since her eyes aren't on him, she is no longer interested in him, affair?
  • Pronoun 'Your' seems accusational, blaming her for break of relationship
• "the smile on your...

  mouth was the deadest thing"
• "the smile on your mouth was the deadest thing"

  • Juxtaposition between 'smile' and 'deadest' depicts the pain inflicted by love
  • Superlative 'deadest' emphasises the lack of happiness in relationship
  • Pronoun 'your' sets accusational tone, suggesting she is fake
• "alive enough to...

  have the strength to die"
• "alive enough to have the strength to die"

  • Adjective 'alive' forms antithesis with verb 'die' to hint the couple were prone to conflict and contrasted each other
• "Like an ominous bird a-wing..."

  • Ellipsis could suggest Hardy is still wondering what happened, or the sadness is ongoing OR passage of time leading to current day in 4th stanza
  • Simile implies the relationship was destined to fail
  • 'Bird' represents the relationship flying away,
• grin of bitterness swept thereby"

  • Oxymoron 'grin of bitterness' heightens pessimistic tone
  • The emotion is personified to suggest nature is against them, perhaps an attempt by Hardy to justify their separation
• your face, and the God curst sun... and a pond edged with greyish leaves."

  • 'God curst sun' links to 'chidden of God', creating a cyclical structure to show God was fundamentally against their relationship
  • Poem ends with melancholic sentiment to mirror the speakers conclusion, that love is painful
• the sun was white, as though chidden of God"

  • 'Sun' is typically symbol of warmth, but adjective 'white' suggests a lack of warmth and colour, like lack of life in relationship
  • Verb 'chidden' connotes scolding, suggesting the couple are rebuked by God, OR they were never meant to be and relationship against God's will
  • 'White' has pure and angelic connotations, which juxtaposes 'chidden of God' to explore harsh reality of love
  • Caesura slows down pace for emphasis
• their arguments "lost the more by our love"

  • Alliterative consonants emphasise the lack of love
  • Verb 'lost' is physically separated from Abstract Noun 'love' to mirror the distance that had grown between the couple
• Poem starts and ends by a pond to create...

  a cyclical structure that reflects the stagnant relationship
• Rhyme Scheme:

  Enclosed Rhyme Scheme consistent throughout poem
• Consistent Enclosed Rhyme Scheme is used to show...


  the unchanged, one-sided relationship; both people have different intentions and are not together
• Caesura creates...

  a claustrophobic atmosphere to perhaps mirror the relationship and that love is painful and restricting
• Enjambment is used to...

  reflect the "ongoing riddles" in the relationship that never get solved - highlights problematic relationship