GCSE (9-1): Literature: Poetry: AQA Love and Relationships: Neutral Tones: Quotes

that winter day'

that' suggests it was a specific day in the past, probably a day that sticks out in the speaker's memory; winter is often associated with death

And the sun was white'

one of the many examples in the poem of a colourless scene

And a few leaves lay on the starving sod;'

The few leaves lying on the ground were once fresh, during spring but they are now dead, symbolic of the relationship

- They had fallen from an ash, and were gray.'

Something that was once beautiful has been lost; the sense of loss is a key theme in the poem

connotations of the colour 'gray.'

reflects the depressed tone of the poem; additionally, the idea of grey days is often linked with depression

Your eyes on me were as eyes that rove'

rove' is used ambiguously here because it can mean to wander around an area or it can mean to look in a way because of attraction but Hardy uses enjambment to subvert the reader's expectations because the next line tells us that it was a look of boredom, not of attraction

the deadest thing / Alive'

an oxymoron, illustrating how she smiled but her smile was dead because there was clearly no emotion behind it; also reflects the idea that they were not meant to be together, just like the words in an oxymoron

ominous definition

suggests something bad will happen

Like an ominous bird a-wing....'

the ominous bird represents death; the death of love and the death of happiness and of their relationship

sibilance in 'lessons that love deceives'

creates a hissing sound, suggesting slyness.

Since then, keen lessons that love deceives,'

Hardy does not make clear who has been deceitful in this poem, the speaker or the speaker's parter - he could be suggesting that both have been deceitful

And a pond edged with grayish leaves.'

water is an ancient and universal symbol of purity, fertility and source of life, however, Hardy subverts this idea here by presenting it as something that is contaminated with dying leaves, suggesting these cliché symbols have no value in the speaker's view