Neutral Tones Analysis

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 gray.

Your eyes on me were as eyes that rove
Over tedious riddles solved 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 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 grayish leaves.

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"Neutral Tones" by Thomas Hardy is very neutral in tone;[2] its melancholic note is created by a narrator reflecting on the termination of a relationship. Throughout, a soothing yet depressing language illustrates this duality. Hardy uses a variety of techniques to highlight sadness and emotions in the narrator.

| Posted on 2009-10-12 | by a guest

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I thought the phrase 'riddles solved long ago' could refer to how well they know each other and how the loss of any enigmatic quality has caused them to become tired and boring, in the same way that a riddle that you know the answer to is not interesting any more.

| Posted on 2009-05-19 | by a guest

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Neutral Tones by Thomas Hardy
“Neutral Tones” by Thomas Hardy is like the title of the poem says very neutral; the melancholic tone of the poem is created by a narrator reflecting on a termination of a relationship. Throughout The poem a very soothing but at the same time depressing language is used to capture the image of this moment. The Poet uses a variety of techniques to highlight the sadness of the poem and to evaluate the feelings of the narrative voice.
In the first stanza the scene is set, “we stood by a pond that winter day”, and the very language used reflects upon the atmosphere created by the words, no harsh sounds are used and the sentence is an epitome of the poem and the tranquility and yet at the same time disheartening feel that we get from the poem. In the second line we get even more of these very “neutral” monosyllabic words “the sun was white, as though the chidden of god,” in this sentence the poets attempt to stay within his own themes are very explicit by the use of the adjective “white” to describe the sun, the sun normally represented by the colour yellow and a symbol for happiness and life. The very dismal atmosphere is further reinforced by the use of the alliteration of “L” creating a sort of lazy but yet unsatisfying tone, the further sibilance used in “starving sod” creates a rather harsh sound that really ads another layer of hopelessness to the poem. The whole metaphor of the “few leaves” is used to symbolize the end of an era, almost hint towards the dying of life, in this case however it is not life that died but love.
The next stanza talks more about the nature of their relationship, “Your eyes on me were as eyes that rove over tedious riddles solved years ago.” This can be interpreted to mean that the couple has the same fights over and over again and that there is no progress made, the insignificance of their communication is exposed by the extremely tired and morbid undertone we get in lines such as “And some words played between us to and fro-“, this really shows that there communication is flawed on a fundamental level making co-existence virtually impossible at least when talking about their relationship.
The first line in the third stanza contains a very emotionally appealing oxymoron that really crushes your heart figuratively speaking, describing her “smile”, a facial gesture usually associated with happiness and joy, as “the deadest thing”. This really provokes emotion in the reader because the cold causality of the gesture reminds one of the bitterness of this poem. However this oxymoronic metaphor continues after already having left a strong impression in the readers mind; it is now described as only “alive enough to have the strength to die;” this further enhances the emotional turmoil inside the reader, this metaphor really presents us with a horrifying image of something that just has enough energy to die but without breaking this “neutral tone”. This is one of the reasons why this poem is so effective because of its distance and neutrality of the language it is the perfect example of “less is sometimes more”. Another interesting use of symbolism is the “ominous bird a-wing”, this could have been put in as a kind of prolepsis to the final stanza, the ominous bird representing his know shattered trust, the word “ominous” almost suggest something paganistic about this.
The fourth stanza is finally one of total despair; however this is done without breaking the neutral melancholic tone of the poem. The narrator now utters phrases like “love deceives”, this indicates that he is so hurt from that break up that something inside of him was broken that cannot be repaired at least not right know. He further goes on to say that he was “shaped” by the “wrings with wrong”, this alliteration shows how much mental anguish he has been through and we get to almost share his pain. The poem ends almost like it started with very neutral monosyllabic words, however the change in the character becomes obvious, instead of referring to the sun as “white” he now refers to it as the “god-curst sun”, this shows a change in character how he is starting to emotionally change his state from sadness into anger, the final line I believe was put in to especially to explicitly show the “neutral tones” of this poem, by ending it with “a pond edged with grayish leaves” the poem becomes a kind of circular quality referring back to the “pond” they were standing next to in the first line.

| Posted on 2008-12-04 | by a guest