Neutral Tones

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  • Created by: Scythe27x
  • Created on: 24-05-17 20:03
"The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing"
This is an oxymoron, as a smile should not be dead. This emphasises her complete lack of feeling towards him.
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"riddles" "played" "lost"
These three words have an imagery to do with games, showing that love should be somewhat fun and playful, however, theirs has become "tedious" and they have "lost".
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"Like an omnious bird a-wing"
Imagery of a bird flying away suggests an end of something, namely the relationship in this poem.
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"We stood by a pond that winter day"
The verb "stood" shows a lack of physical movement, which contributes to a somewhat lifeless atmosphere. Then the idea of it being a winters day, uses pathetic fallacy to reflect their feelings, they're being emotionally cold towards each other.
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"keen lessons that love deceives".
The adjective "keen" means sharp or strong, these lessons have been painful. Then there is the narrator saying "love decieves" which shows he has a pessimistic generalisation that all love is deceptive.
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"starving sod"
Alliteration and personification emphasises this impression of suffering, the lifeless ground reflects their dying relationship.
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Context
Traditionally known for his miserable poems with may be due to his unhappy first marriage or the fact that he disagreed with the new industrialised society and loss of old traditions.
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Narrative
The poem recounts the day that the narrator split with his lover and in the final stanza reveals to us that he still thinks of that fateful day and how it caused him to lose faith in love.
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Form
The poem is written from the point of view of a man addressing a past lover. The first and last lines of each stanza rhyme, this reflects how the memory of a past experience returns to affect the narrator in the present.
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Structure
The first three stanzas centre around a specific memory, then there's a time jump to the final stanza where the narrator reflects on love in general. The poem ends where it began, with an image of a pond.
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Language about Suffering
Although the "neutral" tone of the poem is never broken, it's clear that the narrator feels strong emotions about that day by the pond, he uses language associated with pain, death and punishment, this shows he is hurt by this.
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Language about Lifelessness
The "neutral" tone shows the lack of love between the narrator and his lover, and the pessimistic way the narrator now feels about love in general. The death of their relationship and his lack of hope are reflected in the landscape.
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Author
Thomas Hardy
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

"riddles" "played" "lost"

Back

These three words have an imagery to do with games, showing that love should be somewhat fun and playful, however, theirs has become "tedious" and they have "lost".

Card 3

Front

"Like an omnious bird a-wing"

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

"We stood by a pond that winter day"

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

"keen lessons that love deceives".

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
View more cards

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