Neutral Tones

Neutral Tones-Thomas Hardy

COMPARE TO WHITE SWANS OR WHEN WE TWO PARTED

Extra Detail:

• ABBA rhyme scheme
  • Restricted
  • Inconsistant use of rhyming creates an uncomfortable feeliing which reflects the feeling of the two people in the break down of their relationship
• 4 quatrains (4 lines)

Context:

• Mainy of his poems deal with themes of dissapointment in love and life, and 'the perversity of fate'
• Neutral Tones is about the speaker remembering a point in a past relationship when they realised that their love had died
• Although the poem is called 'Neutral Tones' the poes has a feeling of grief and loss. Everything in nature is described as dead or decaying - as if all the warmth has been sucked out of him and earth and their love

Stanza 1:

• "We stood by a pond that winter day, / And the sun was white, as though chidden of God, / And a few leaves lay on the starving sod; /    -They had fallen from and ash, and were grey."
  • "Pond"
    • Imagery of pond reflects their mood
    • Ponds are still.
  • "Winter day"
    • Winter is cold and everything dies off
  • "Sun was white"
    • Bleached, scared, dead
  • "Chidden of God"
    • Religious
    • Told off by God
  • "Starving sod"
    • Personification
      • Emotionally tortured by her
    • "Starving"
      • Lacking something 
        • Which is why their relationship is tedious
  • "Ash"
    • Double anttandre
      • Could mean…