NEUTRAL TONES

• What does the title suggest?

  "Neutral Tones"

  • sense of emotional neutrality and detachment
  • coldness and numbness
  • 'Neutral' - grey and sad, a bit depressing
• What is this quote - "WSBAPTWD" + "SWW,ATCOG"

  "We stood by a pond that winter day"

  • uses pathetic fallacy to set the mood of the poem
  • gloomy tone - "winter"; cold, still and lifeless + negative emotions
  • helps reader to connect with the poet by immersing them in the poet's world

  "Sun was white, as though chidden of God"

  • emotive + melodramatic language
  • the sun is white, offers no warmth - hidden away by the clouds
  • almost like it has been rejected by God, reflects his strong emotions
  • even the natural world doesn't want them together
• "F", "A", "O", "G", "B"

  "Fallen" and "ash"

  • creating a semantic field of death
  • deliberate use of ash tree to create the image and picture of death

  "ominous", "grey", "bitterness:

  • negative tone is represented
  • not meant to be
• "G-C S" + "PEWGL"

  "God-curst sun"

  there is a cyclic nature of the poem - the link to chidden of God

  • God is against their relationship is still stagnant
  • God has cursed his own heart and ability to love
  • the feelings are innately tied to the scenery of the place where his love died

  "Pond edged with greyish leaves"

  • cyclical structure
  • "greyish" reiterates his feelings about love
• "TSMOYMWTDT"

  "The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing"

  • juxtaposition between 'smile' and 'deadest' - life and death reflects on the pain cause by love
  • highlighting the contrasting feelings
  • unable to understand each other
  • not real, no true joy or peace
  • disconnected from each other - isolated
  • psychotic/sociopath, as they're fully dis-genuine - imagery
• conclusions of Neutral Tones

  • ending of a relationship and the emotional numbness that follows
  • emotional neutrality or detachment
  • cold, lifeless aspects of nature mirror the feelings of the two previous lovers
  • "grey", "dead[est]" "bitterness"
  • but Hardy has an acceptance tone
  • "keen lessons that love deceives" - concedes
  • taken in the experience and is now moving on letting go of the resentment (matured)
  • doesn't outpour his emotions and almost has a lack of warmth or emotion