Neutral Tones By Thomas Hardy - 1420 Words

â€Å"Neutral Tones,† a poem written by Thomas Hardy, is composed of four stanzas with each stanza consisting of four lines. The first and fourth line of each stanza rhyme, while the second and third line of each stanza rhyme. Each line is short enough to be spoken with a single breath, and the last line of each stanza is slightly indented. Both the tone and diction throughout the poem is consistently depressing. The theme of â€Å"Neutral Tones† is that love is not always what one would expect it to be. The theme is expressed as the speaker reflects upon a past relationship that did not end smoothly. The gloomy mood of the poem is immediately set in the first stanza. The opening sentence, â€Å"We stood by a pond that winter day,† provides details regarding the setting (1). The verb tense informs the reader that the speaker is reminiscing on a day that has happened in the past. Using the word â€Å"that† clues the reader in that the day being reflected upon was one of great importance to the speaker. Being that â€Å"winter† has a negative connotation as the depressing season, the tone is further set by mentioning the time of year; winter is lonely, frigid, and dormant. Using â€Å"winter† as the season sets the depressing tone for love to die similarly to how the leaves mentioned in the poem are also dying (3). The third line, â€Å"a few leaves lay on the starving sod,† showcases the death of the leaves which otherwise would be an ordinary event if it did not enhance the mood. The use of personificationShow MoreRelatedNeutral Tones by Thomas H ardy1653 Words   |  7 PagesNeutral Tones by Thomas Hardy (1867) Neutral Tones BY  THOMAS HARDY 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;   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ They had fallen from an ash, and were gray. Your eyes on me were as eyes that rove Over tedious riddles of years ago; And some words played between us to and fro   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  On which lost the more by our love. The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing Alive enough to haveRead MoreAnalysis Of Neutral Tones By Thomas Hardy1056 Words   |  5 Pagesto be completely numb. Throughout the following poems â€Å"Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?†, â€Å"My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun†, â€Å"The Flea†, and Thomas Hardy’s â€Å"Neutral Tones† the authors all share their experiences about love, with a major emphasis on the hardships that come with love. In Thomas Hardy’s poem â€Å"Neutral Tones† written in 1867, he reflects back on his past and the lessons he learned from it. By portraying his sadness throughout the poem he pushes the readers to recognizeRead More An Analysis of Neutral Tones by Thomas Hardy Essay822 Words   |  4 PagesAn Analysis of Neutral Tones by Thomas Hardy      Ã‚   We stood by a pond that winter day, (1) This line indicates a still quietness, with lack of the movement of life. There is a vast difference in appearance and movement around a pond in winter and a pond in the midst of summer. This indicates no leaves, and no visible signs of life. The poet is painting a stark and lifeless scene. And the sun was white, as though chidden of God,(2) This is indicative of the modernist approach to lightRead More Comparing the poems Neutral Tones and Absence Essay2047 Words   |  9 PagesComparing the poems Neutral Tones and Absence Both the poems Neutral Tones by Thomas Hardy and Absence by Elizabeth Jennings mention and describe the poets feelings about losing their partners. Even though the general theme, the loss of love, is the same, many features such as tone, imagery, language and rhyme scheme differ from each other. Hardy emphasises more on his feelings towards his break up. He doesnt actually mention how he feels, but instead, the imagery he uses and theRead MorePorphyria s Lover And Neutral Tones1318 Words   |  6 PagesAt the most superficial layer, the speaker’s in both Porphyria’s Lover and Neutral Tones, written by Thomas hardy, both deal with loss. The tones in Neutral Tones seem to be indifferent, or Neutral. Porphyria’s Lover speaker ends up murdering his beloved at the end the poem. While this isn’t the case with the speaker in Neutral Tones, the two speakers are much more similar than we might think. The speaker in Neutral Tones doesn’t outright murder his lover, but there is a considerable amount of disdainRead MoreThomas Hardy Poems16083 Words   |  65 Pages ´C ´, â€Å"crass casualty† that creates a sharp angry yet satisfying tone. Personification is the device seen in this sonnet as it is seen at line 9,†joy lies slain† where joy is seen as a person being killed by an assassin, hence being slain. Line 12, time is personified as a gambler who throws a â⠂¬Å"moan† as he is throwing the dice in an attempt for it to land on happiness. The persona challenges god fiercely in an outraged tone, a sad tone is being detected in hardy’s witting because god is such a powerfulRead More Bitterness, Weariness and Impotence in Hardys Tess of the dUbervilles2873 Words   |  12 PagesBitterness, Weariness and Impotence in Thomas Hardys Tess of the dUbervilles In his novel Tess of the dUbervilles, as well as much of his poetry, Thomas Hardy expresses his dissatisfaction, weariness, and an overwhelming sense of injustice at the cruelty of our universal fate  - disappointment and disillusionment. Hardy argues that the hopes and desires of Men are cruelly thwarted by a potent combination of all-powerful Nature, fate, unforeseen accidents and disasters, and tragic flawsRead MoreJohn Keats s Poem, The Darkling Thrush1952 Words   |  8 Pageswith nature and its beauty. In John Keats’s poem â€Å"Ode to a Nightingale† he feels enraptured the moment he listens to the songbird and feels that beauty and love, as an embodiment of art, are imperishable having perpetual springtime freshness. As for Thomas Hardy’s poem â€Å"The Darkling Thrush,† he feels deserted and disappointed that his imagination could not detain him for long in its world, but is brought back to the world of reality, as he is able hear the bird joyf ully sing, but is out of touch withRead MoreLove and Death Poem Analysis2154 Words   |  9 PagesPOETRY – Poems about Love DIRECTIONS: Discuss the attitude/tone of the poem and the theme in your small groups. Afterward, write down your conclusions regarding the tone and theme of poems about a similar subject. |â€Å"The Quiet World† |â€Å"Flirtation† |â€Å"Song: To Celia |â€Å"love is more thicker than forget† |â€Å"Neutral Tones† | | | Read MoreLiterature Marking Scheme9477 Words   |  38 Pagesmust answer on one set text from this section: ** Thomas Hardy The following fourteen poems: Neutral Tones ‘I Look into My Glass’ Drummer Hodge The Darkling Thrush On the Departure Platform The Pine Planters The Convergence of the Twain The Going The Voice At the Word ‘Farewell’ During Wind and Rain In Time of ‘The Breaking of Nations’ No Buyers: A Street Scene Nobody Comes These may be found in Selected Poems, ed. Harry Thomas (Penguin). Poems printed in the paper will follow