Neutral Tones - Hardy

Question 1

What is Neutral Tones about?

Answer 1

• The speaker remembers the moment he realises that his wife was truly gone
• published in 1898 as part of Hardy’s collection of poems, “Wessex Poems.”
• The poem is a reflection on a failed love affair and explores the theme of emotional detachment and disillusionment.

Question 2

Imagery of Weather?

Answer 2

• Pathetic Fallacy Set in “winter” — sets the mood of the poem with the absence of life and vitality.
• Sun remarked as “white” — Lack of colour as the sun is deprived of its yellowness — of its ability to bring life
• Sun sent away as though “chidden of God” - pathetic fallacy, in which the natural world is used to reflect or mirror the emotions of the characters + the natural world is personified as having received a rebuke or disapproval from God —> God has expressed displeasure towards the natural world
• “They had fallen from an ash, and were grey” –> The idea of falling leaves is linked to the season of autumn –> which implies that their relationship is entering winter and warmth is leaving

Question 3

Death Imagery

Answer 3

Refers to death in an ominous mood

“Alive enough to have strength to die”