Neutral Tones

Question 1

Themes:

Answer 1

• Pain, Loss, Death
• Bitterness, Anger
• Nature

Question 2

Compare With:

Answer 2

• Winter Swans
• When We Two Parted
• Father’s Bride

Question 3

Pain, Loss, Death:

Answer 3

• “And a few leaves lay on the starving sod; they had fallen from an ash, and were grey”
  Grey (Colour) is lifeless and signify death
• The earth is starving and dying aswell

Question 4

Bitterness, Anger:

Answer 4

• “Alive enough to have strength to die and a grin of bitterness swept thereby”
  Thinks she is evil and bitter, no life in the relationship at all

Question 5

Nature:

Answer 5

• “The sun was white as though chidden of god”
• “Like an ominous bird- a wing”
• “A wing”

Question 6

Compare With: Winter Swans

Answer 6

• Both set in nature
• Breakups and death
• Start with a pond

Question 7

Compare With: When We Two Parted

Answer 7

• Breakups
• Death Of Relationships
• Nature

Question 8

Compare With Farmer’s Bride

Answer 8

• Negative element of love
• Talk bad about the women
• Both use Nature

Question 9

Form:

Answer 9

• POV of the male ( past lover)
• Cyclical rhythm of the ‘Pond’
• Past experience of the lover

Question 10

Structure:

Answer 10

• First three stanzas focused on a memory
• Final stanza is on presence and reality
• Repeating since the pond

Question 11

Tone:

Answer 11

• Although the poem has a neutral tone, it reflects a sense of bitterness on the part of the narrator