Neutral Tones

Question 1

Form

Answer 1

The poem is written from the point of view of a man addressing a past lover. The first and last lines of each stanza rhyme - this reflects how the memory of a past experience returns to affect the narrator in the present. It implies a sense of sadness that the relationship failed.

Question 2

Structure

Answer 2

The first three stanzas are focused on a specific memory, then there is a time jump (analepses) to the final stanza where the narrator reflects on love in general. The poem ends where it began, with the image of a pond. The cyclical structure represents how he has been repeatedly hurt by love since that day by the pond.

Question 3

Language about suffering

Answer 3

Although the neutral tone of the poem is never broken it is clear that the narrator feels strong emotions about the day by the pond. He uses language that is associated with pain, death and punishment which shows the hurt that he feels: ‘The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing..’

Question 4

Language about lifelessness.

Answer 4

The ‘neutral’ tone shows the lack of love between the narrator and his lover and the depressing way the narrator feels about love in general. The death of their relationship is and lack of hope is reflected in the bleakness of the landscape: ‘And a few leaves lay on the starving sod;’.

Question 5

Tone

Answer 5

Although the poem has a neutral tone, it reflects a sense of bitterness on the part of the narrator and also a pessimism about love.

Question 6

which poem should it be compared with?

Answer 6

You could compare this with the feelings that are evoked in the poem ‘When we two parted’ and think about the language that both authors use to create feelings of bitterness. Or you could also compare it with the poem ‘Winter Swans’ that also uses nature imagery to reflect a troubled relationship.