Neutral Tones Quotes

sun (sadness)

the sun was white

• lack of colour, shows the lack of warmth and life between the characters. It should be yellow which connotes happiness and hope and so without it there is no positivity

• sun is normally bright and shining but this description makes it blend into the monochrome background and removes its significance/importance. Nothing in the setting is special or lively

• ‘white’ connotes emptiness, and could reflect how barren and lacking Hardy is for love/affection

sod (sadness)

starving sod

• sod = earth, it’s everywhere, shows the magnitude of misery

• adjective ‘starving’ portrays how emotionally starved Hardy is, it’s been a very long time since he’s felt any proper and meaningful love. starving also connotes weak and poor, with this it helps to show how depressing and exhausting life is without love

• sibilance conveys his despair

smile (bitterness)

the smile on your mouth was the deadest thing

• juxtaposition between life and death shows the pain caused by love, all positivity becomes negative. This juxtaposition could also demonstrate the contrast between the 2 lovers and how they don’t suit each other

• this morbid reference subverts the positive connotations of a smile into something torturous

• sense of inevitability for the end of their relationship

bird (bitterness)

like an ominous bird a-wing…

• simile symbolises the death of their relationship

• ‘ominous bird’ a symbol of death and tragedy which creates a sinister tone

lessons (ongoing suffering)

keen lessons that love deceives

• term ‘lessons’ presents the message of the poem presented as a statement/fact. It also appears as Hardy’s only takeaway from the relationship, he learns about how awful and negative love is

• after the breakup Hardy is left with a negative view on love, despite time passing he still is unable to move on from this heartbreak

leaves (ongoing suffering)

greyish leaves

• ending is melancholic and depressing as it was the whole time, nothing has changed even as time passes, still no warmth/love around him

• reference to leaves creates a cyclical structure as they were mentioned before, they could represent his unchanging feelings which are also reflected in the regular ABBA rhyme scheme

• falling leaves often connote the end of something, like summer, in this case it’s the end of the relationship. But instead of being colourful memories there is nothing but bleakness, perhaps this mirrors how Hardy shows no signs of happiness in the relationship