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

literal meaning of the word 'neutral' in the title, 'Neutral Tones'

indifferent, not caring, having no strongly marked or positive characteristics, features emotions or opinions; also denotes colors that are not bright

connotative meanings of the word 'neutral' in the title, 'Neutral Tones'

uncaring, dead, no emotions

literal meaning of the word 'tones' in the title, 'Neutral Tones'

pitch, quality, and strength of a vocal sound; the general character or attitude of a place, piece of writing, situation, etc or the feeling given from a colour

connotative meaning of the word 'tones' in the title, 'Neutral Tones'

no emotions can be heard or felt in the voice or seen in colours

tone definition

the speaker or author's attitude towards the subject

the speaker's tone

sad and depressed

diction

the choice and use of words in speech or writing

diction in 'Neutral Tones'

Hardy uses the diction of death to relate to his feelings about the speaker's failed relationship, eg, 'winter', 'starving', 'ash', 'deadest', 'die', 'greyish'

effect of diction of death in 'Neutral Tones'

creates an extended metaphor relating the feeling of a loss of love to winter and the death of nature

sibilance in 'lessons that love deceives'

a specific type of alliteration that relies on the repetition of soft consonant sounds, such as /s/ or /z/ in words to create a wooshing or hissing sound in the writing, eg, 'lessons that love deceives'

the effects of sibilance

creates a hissing sound, suggesting slyness.

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

Verse

a line of poetry

foot

a measuring unit in poetry, which is made up of stressed and unstressed syllables; a specific combination of feet creates meter in poetry

Syllable

the pronunciation of a vowel sound within a word

Meter

a stressed and unstressed syllabic pattern in a verse

iamb

a metrical pattern of 1 unstressed syllable followed by 1 stressed syllable (2 feet - da-DUM), eg, 'We STOOD by a POND that WINter DAY'

pentameter

repetition of a metrical pattern 5 times; in the case of iambic pentameter it makes 10 syllables all together, per line - da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM

iambic pentameter

a classic metrical structure of 1 unstressed syllable followed by 1 stressed syllable (2 feet - da-DUM); this pattern is repeated 5 times making 10 syllables all together per line - da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM

metre in 'Neutral Tones'

There is a mix of feet throughout this poem though overall it can be scanned as iambic pentameter, that is, iambic beats are the more obvious compared to others

typical function of iambic pentameter

often used to reflect natural speech; typically also used with serious, important topics, to give an elevated tone and give a sense of harmonious, controlled rhythm and is common in ballads and narratives

effects of iambic pentameter in 'Neutral Tones'

the metre tries to conform to the iambic pentameter rhythmical structure but sometimes ends on 9 or 11 beats rather than 10 and even the ones with 10 bears are not strictly iambic; this is, perhaps, a reflection of the speaker's desire to maintain some form of control or balance in his relationship but the irregularities in the metre suggest that this is not possible, as do the cyclical structure, the repetitive rhyme scheme and depressing diction and tone