Neutral tones Flashcards
Who wrote Neutral Tones?
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928_
Context of Neutral Tones? [2]
- Victorian realist poet
- Hardy’s poetry is often colored by events in his own life while he seeks to make a wider point.
Content of Neutral Tones?
Hardy shows the end of a relationship where the love has been drained and is non existant
Tone of Neutral Tones? [3]
Bitter/Bleak/Emotionless
Aim of Neutral Tones?
Aims to convey a sense of bleakness and emptiness as he highlights a universal theme, what it feels like to experience a failed relationship, not to expose a purely personal experience.
Form and structure of Neutral Tones? [3]
Rhyme scheme : ABBA CDDC EFFE GHHG
- Very structured as it is repeated = shows rigidility in the relationship
- Sense of circularity which mirrors momentary effect in the relationship. Bring up the setting of the pond at the start and end
What field of language is used throughout the poem and what is the effect?
Semantic field of death is used ‘ash / deadest ‘ to reflect the bleak nature of the poem
What technique is used in the poem to represent the mood?
Pathetic fallacy
How does the setting create a bleak mood in the first stanza? [5]
‘sun was white, as though chidden of God’
‘a few leaves lay on the starving sod’ as ‘they had fallen from ash and were gray’
- Perhaps a promising setting in the summer like their relationship, offereing beauty and happiness earlier.
- Now place evokes a sense of misery. Even the sun, a symbol of warmth seems rejected by God.
- uses non-specific words
- The leaves are sparse and ‘gray’ suggesting death rather than regeneration
In the second stanza what quote shows there is nothing between them anymore? [2]
‘Some words played between us to and fro on which lost the more by our love’
- They only argue about which one of them lost the most throughout the relationship. The words are meaningless and unfilling
In the second stanza what quote shows they are bored? [4]
‘Eyes that rove over tedious riddles years ago’
- Perhaps a playful relationship as they got to know each other
- Now see nothing in each other as all puzzles have been solved
- ‘Tedious’ emphaises how it is bothersome to continue the relationship
In the third stanza what quote emphasises how the relationship is now painful? [4]
‘The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing/Alive enough to have strength to dies; And a grin of bitterness swept thereby’
- The enjambent over lines 9-10 makes the painful metaphor feel longer and feel more tortourous. Makes it feel as if a merciful release from the relationship is necessary
- Juxtaposition is emblematic of conflict
- ‘Bitterness’ shows how there is no love
In the fourth stanza what quote shows the impact the relationship has had?
‘Keen lessons that love deceives And wrings with wrong, have shaped to me’
- Shows subsequent relationship have ended badly
- Alliteration is a tongue-twister which emphasises the difficulty and pain of the relationship
- ‘Wringing’ is an anxious movement
Who was Hardy inspired by?
Inspired by Wandsworth, whose poetry focused on the natural world and ordinary people rather than gods/goddesses of mythology
