Neutral Tones (1867) - Poetry - English

Facts about the poet (Thomas Hardy)

• Hardy was insecure, depressed and sensitive as a result to two unsuccessful marriages.

• Hardy had a very dismal live.

• ‘Neutral Tones’ was one of the last poems he wrote before he stopped writing poetry.

• The books that he wrote are similar to his poems where the characters usually experience major difficulty.

• He was known for the dark realism of his prose.

Summary of the poem

• The poem focuses on an earlier, failed relationship

• We see that the relationship has stagnated or frozen. It’s like the stillness and lack of viability of the winter setting in the poem.

Structure and form

• The poem has a circular structure as the first line is echoed in the final line - ‘A few leaves lay on the starving sod; / - They had fallen from ash and were grey.’ and ‘The pond edged with greyish leaves.’

(It creates a sense of frustration. It reflects the narrators’ awareness that the relationship is over and he is stuck in his feelings of sadness and disappointment.)

• The poem is a lyric poem

(Follows the bitter feelings of a relationship ending.)

• Indentation

(It's purpose is to slow down the pace of the poem.)

Examples of quotes for the incompatibility with lovers

• ‘Alive enough to have strength to die.’ (Juxtaposition)

• (This quote is an example of antithesis and this implies that the couple are prone to having conflicts and juxtaposed each other in a destructive way.

• His lover’s smile is a dead ‘thing’ and an ominous sign which shows the disintegration of the relationship.)

• Pronouns

(The pronoun ‘we’ can only be found at the beginning of the poem to show how the lovers have come apart.

‘Us’ and ‘our’ are also used but only to refer their love fading away even more.)

Presentation of lifelessness of a relationship

• Pathetic fallacy

(‘We stood by a pond that winter day,’. This quote uses pathetic fallacy when he says ‘winter’ to establish depression and coldness from the start. Hardy also uses it to mirror the character’s feelings in the environment they create, In this case, bleak lifelessness.)

• Repetition

(Hardy repeats the colour ’grey’ throughout to emphasise the lack of vitality in the landscape and their relationship.)

Presentation of bitterness of the narrator

• Alliteration

(‘wrings with wrong’ creates a bitter, sneering tone and reflects the narrator’s anger and frustration,)

• Assonance

(‘keen lessons that love deceives’ (assonance of the ‘ee’ sound) adds to the bitter tone of the narrator.)