Essays

Neutral Tones – Thomas Hardy Neutral tones is a lyrical retrospective poem. Lyrical meaning to explore the emotional state of the Speaker and is a poem that can be sung. Retrospective means to look back, remember, and is usually the memories of the poet. The Speaker remembers the day his love for his mistress finally died and how this influenced the rest of his affairs or relationships. The poem consists of four stanzas with four lines each, giving a total of 16 lines. The rhyme scheme stays consistent throughout the poem. The rhyme scheme is abba. In Afrikaans this is known as ‘omarmende rym’ but there is no known term for this in English. The poet makes use of similes or analogy throughout the whole poem. This poem is about the dying of the love between the Speaker and his mistress. The Speaker remembers the day that his mistress left him and how cold and indifferent she was towards him. They exchanged words, arguments and insults but they never reached anything. “The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing” shows that she did not feel anything for him and that there is no way of saving their love. This smile was alive enough just to die in front of him. The tone of Neutral Tones is sad and depressing. This is emphasized by the neutral colors that the poet uses. This also links up with the heading of the poem. The neutral colors being grey, white and brown. These colors symbolize the deadness of the love between the speaker and his mistress, but goes on symbolizing the deadness in his live. The speaker’s live stays dull and he has made no progress. The imagery and figures of speech is what gives this poem a unique meaning. Throughout the whole poem, the poet makes use of depressing and bleak nature scenes that emphasize the dead love between the speaker and his mistress. In stanza one the place and circumstances is given of the day the love between the speaker and his mistress came to an end. The winter day represents the coldness of the mistress towards the speaker. The sun ‘chidden of God’ gives the idea that the sun is ineffectual and does not have the warmth to save their love, if there was something to save. The image of ‘starving sod’ shows that the ground is starving, barren and dry, most probably because it is winter time. This is also a form of personification for the ground is given the human quality of starving or dying. The leaves that falls from an Ash Tree also give the image of deadness and dying. The leaves are dead and lay grey on the starving ground. The Ash Tree again emphasizes the grayness of the whole poem and the neutral tones that the heading refers to. The poet could have used any tree but decides to use an Ash tree for this falls in with the rest of the poem. Ash, as in remains of a fire, also represents deadness and is grey when burnt out. In stanza two the poet turns to his beloved and talks to her. The poem becomes more personal in this stanza and stays personal until the end. The ‘riddles’ has become ‘tedious’, meaning they have become boring and old. They are not fun and interesting anymore. This also emphasizes her indifference, coldness and cruelness towards him. The ‘to and fro’ is the arguments and/or conversation that is not going anywhere. The conversation has become dull and has no conviction to it. It has no purpose anymore. The more they talked the less evidence there was of love between them. The longer they spoke the more the love between them died. Their conversation or argument has lost meaning. The ‘to and fro’ also refers to the insults they threw at one another. The mistress’ eyes are roving and not focused on the speaker anymore. They are wandering. This could mean that she is rolling her eyes or that she is looking at other guys or it could just mean that she is bored and looking everywhere else but never at the speaker. In stanza three the mistress indifference towards the speaker has reached the highest point. The smile that is supposed to be a positive sign is dead and has no life or meaning for the speaker. The smile is only alive enough to die in front of the speaker. Showing him that she does not feel anything for him and that there is no more hope for their love. She has become cold and cruel towards him. She does not care anymore. The smile dying is also a personification as well as a paradox. It is alive but only to die. The smile then transforms into a grin. A grin compared to an ominous bird. A grin that is compared to a vulture. This reflects that this grin destroys and kills the last bit of love that might have been between them. The mistress gives this grin and then feeds on the effect that this has on the speaker. The mistress indifference causes a lot of pain for speaker and the hope he had for their love has now been destroyed. Stanza four is about the speaker’s life and affairs after this day. The speaker has learned from this experience that love is deceiving and misleading. He has learned that ‘the wrings with wrongs’ have taught him more about love and life. The ‘wrings’ is the love that is killing him and causing him a lot of pain. The speaker remembers her face and this links up with stanza one. He remembers the day, what happened and the lessons he has learned from that day. He also remembers the disappointment and the influence that experience had on the rest of his life. He has become the pond. He is now cold and dead. His life is grey and is life stayed cold from the experiences of the bad love he had. He tried his best but made no progress with the other relationships he had. He never reached anything. Number of words: 1016