Pain and suffering - Neutral tones / Walking away Flashcards
Umbrella sentence
Whilst ‘Walking Away’ deals with a father’s pain at parting from his son, ‘Neutral Tones’ describes the pain of romantic rejection.
TS1
In both poems, the speakers recall memories of their pain, which suggests that they are still haunted by them.
TS2
Both poets use natural imagery to describe painful feelings.
TS3
However, the pain and suffering takes different forms: Hardy’ speaker feels bitter, Day-Lewis’ speaker feels guilt.
‘eighteen years ago…I can see/you walking away’ - Walking away
L= present tense even though in past – memory still vivid and painful. Structure: line break separates pronouns - emphasizes son parting from father. Direct address to son – suggests feelings unresolved in speaker.
‘We stood by the pond that winter day’ - Neutral Tones
L = past tense. Visual memory of parting still vivid; suggests impact on him. L= verb = lack of movement suggests an impasse in their relationship. Winter – symbolises emotional coldness and death of relationship.
‘like an ominous bird a wing’ - Neutral Tones
‘God-curst sun’ - Neutral Tones
L = simile. The bitter smile is a sign their relationship is over and she wants to take flight away from it.
L= harsh consonant – bitter –sun normally symbolises life and hope C = Hardy was an agnostic. No sign of evidence of god’s love; speaker loses faith and hope
‘starving sod’ / ‘greyish leaves’ - Neutral Tones
L= alliteration. Barren soil symbolises dying relationship; adjective – grey – dying, like their love. R = imagery conveys bleak mood of speaker to the reader
‘keen lessons that love deceives, and wrings with wrong’ - Neutral Tones
L= adjective suggests sharp pain of romantic rejection. Plural ‘lessons’ =he has experienced rejection many times since their relationship ended. Speaker bitter and cynical = love ‘deceives’; pessimistic. He’s lost his faith in love as a positive force.
Alliteration and verb ‘wrings’ – emphasizes the twisting pain of rejection but also implies he perceives himself as the deceived victim.
R = feels speaker is self-pitying?
Monosyllabic end rhymes ‘God/sod’ emphasize his bleak depression.
‘eddying…like a winged seed loosed from its parent stem’ - Walking away
‘pathos of a half-fledged thing’ - Walking away
‘like a satellite wrenched from its orbit’ - Walking away
L = simile. A seed (child) must become independent from its parent if it is to grow. Verb ‘eddying’ suggests child is vulnerable; no clear direction. Must find its own path.
L= emotive metaphor. Son = vulnerable. Not ready to become independent. R = pity for him.
L = simile. Verb = painful. Not ready for parting. Son’s life’s revolved around him.
‘Gnaws at my mind still’. - Walking away
L = powerful verb suggests ongoing pain and guilt at leaving his parting from his son. Caesura emphasizes impact of parting. R = sympathy for father’s pain. C = Day=Lewis dedicated the poem to his son Sean; he divorced Sean’s mother and left the family home. D = on a deeper level, about his guilt at leaving the family, not just leaving his son at boarding school.
Structure
‘a pond’ - Neutral Tones
‘Drifting away/ behind a scatter of boys’ - Walking away
– Hardy’s poem begins and ends in the same place. He cannot forget the memory, suggesting deep pain. He cannot move on.
– enjambment emphasizes son’s growing independence as he moves away from his father but also his father’s desire to hold on to him (there is no end stopped line)
