Neutral tones

• Context- Thomas had lots of unhappy relationships and marriages. Hardy was in unhappy marriage and was bitter and resentful (He re-married but when he died he buried himself next to his old wife) - influenced by emotionalism of romantic poets (19/20th century poetry)
• ABAB rhyme scheme- regular rhyme couplet - they’re physically together but emotionally apart
• “your face, (caesura) and the God-cursed sun” - religious imagery (God cursed the sun wishing Thomas evil because he's had many unhappy marriages and relationships) (blaming god)
• Thomas hardy
• Summary -

  • speaker is telling a story about a meeting with a former lover at side of pond
• ‘ stood by a pond that winter day ‘

  • Hardy uses pathetic fallacy ‘winter’ to show sadness and coldness
  • verb ‘stood’ is past tense implies relationship is over and has a passive implication
• ‘ the sun was white , as though chidden of God ‘

  • lack of colour shows lack of life and love in characters
  • alr opinion - white connotes purity and angelic which juxtaposes the ‘chidden of God’ which actually means the place has been disapproved of god
• ‘ starving sod ‘

  • sibilance - ‘s’ sound drags out conveys despair and also personifies the soil as starving, drained and miserable also reflecting their relationship
• ‘ a few leaves lay ‘ (…) ‘and were grey ‘

  • alliteration of leaves lay emphasises how they're still and not moving
  • monochromatic colours to show dreary relationship
• ‘ eyes that rove ‘ - enjambement

  • enjambement mimics movement of the eyes and the word ‘rove’ reflects the boredom the other person feels
  • alr opinion - cheating
• ’smile on your mouth was the deadest thing’ ‘alive enough to have strength to die’ METAPHOR

  • antithesis (person who is the opposite) - suggests couple were prone to conflict and contrasted eachother
• Cyclical structure -

  • ‘Stood by a pond’ ‘gray’ - start
  • ‘pond edged with grayish leaves’ - end
  • shows how speaker has been repeatedly hurt by love 🔴 alt opinion - he can’t escape thoughts of her - links to context of why he reburied next to his old wife
• ’ words played between us to and fro’

  • personification - implies relationship was trivial and pointless
• Death imagery -

  ‘ deadest thing‘ ‘strength to die’

  • talks about a smile which should be happy but now is something morbid
  • death of relationship
• ‘ neutral tones’ ‘bitterness’ ‘gray’

  • neutral title juxtaposes the strong harsh feelings of pain and coldness
  • shows speaker is confused on what to think - links to enjambement - all his words are pouring out because he’s confused
• ’ grayish leaves ‘

  • pessimism - colourless imagery shows lack of hope everywhere even in nature