Anthology - Neutral Tones

We stood by a pond that winter day,

And the sun was white, as though chidden of God,

And a few leaves lay on the starving sod;

- They had fallen from an ash, and were grey.

Your eyes on me were as eyes that rove

Over tedious riddles of years ago;

And some words played between us to and fro

On which lost the more by our love.

The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing

Alive enough to have the strength to die;

And a grin of bitterness swept thereby

Like an ominous bird a-wing…

Since then, keen lessons that love deceives,

And wrings with wrong, have shaped to me

Your face, and the God-curst sun, and a tree,

And a pond edged with greyish leaves.

THEMES:

• nature

• religion

• broken relationships

• loss

FORM:

• 4 quatrains

  • represents regularity and repetitiveness of suffering

STRUCTURE:

• circular structure

  • represents endless cycle of pain and misery

  • juxtaposes ending of relationship

• ABBA rhyme scheme

  • suggests finding solace in regularity

• tetrameter

  • fast metre that contrasts stagnant atmosphere

• tense shift

  • represents endless suffering and ongoing pain

LANGUAGE:

• death imagery

  • paradox, superlative, synecdoche - “the smile on your mouth was the deadest thing“

  • metaphor, hyperbole - “alive enough to have the strength to die“

• semantic field of play

  • oxymoron - “tedious riddles“

  • personification - “words played between us to and fro“

• natural imagery

  • sibilance, metaphor, personification - “starving sod“

  • polysyndeton, list, colour imagery - “and the God-curst sun, and a tree, // and a pond edged with greyish leaves“

• colour imagery

  • declarative - “the sun was white“

• religious imagery

  • simile - “as though chidden of God“

  • sibilance - “God-curst sun“

CONTEXT:

• written by Thomas Hardy

• Hardy was known to be insecure, depressed and sensitive as a result of two unhappy marriages

• he often used nature in his poems, and specifically how characters reflect nature