Neutral Tones (AQA GCSE English Literature): Revision Note
Exam code: 8702
'Neutral Tones'
Each poetry anthology in the GCSE contains 15 poems, and in the poetry question in the exam you will be given one poem on the paper — printed in full — and asked to compare this given poem to one other from the anthology. You will not have access to the other poems in the exam, so you will have to know them very well from memory. Fifteen poems is a lot to learn. However, understanding four things will enable you to produce a top-mark response:
The meaning of the poem
The ideas and messages the poet wanted to convey
How the poet conveys these ideas and messages through their methods
How these ideas compare and contrast with the ideas and themes of other poems in the anthology
Below is a guide to 'Neutral Tones' by Thomas Hardy, from the Love and Relationships anthology. It includes:
Overview: a breakdown of the poem, including its possible meanings and interpretations
Writer’s methods: an exploration of the poet’s techniques and methods
Context: an exploration of the context of the poem, relevant to its themes
What to compare it to: ideas about which poems to compare it to in the exam
Overview
In order to answer an essay question on any poem, it is essential that you understand what it is about. This section includes:
The poem in a nutshell
A ‘translation’ of the poem, section-by-section
A commentary of each of these sections, outlining Hardy’s intention and message
'Neutral Tones' in a nutshell
'Neutral' Tones is a poem written in 1867 by the English novelist and poet, Thomas Hardy. 'Neutral Tones' is a sombre poem that contemplates the final moments of a romantic relationship as told from the viewpoint of the speaker. The overall tone of the poem is marked by feelings of bitterness and resentment and it exemplifies how this loss can entirely alter an individual. The poem delves deep into the speaker’s sorrow and hopelessness as he reminisces over the fact that a relationship from his past had already come to an end long before its actual separation.
'Neutral Tones' breakdown
Lines 1-4
“We stood by a pond that winter day,
And the sun was white, as though chidden of God,
And a few leaves lay on the starving sod;
– They had fallen from an ash, and were grey.”
Translation
The speaker begins by the poem by describing a recollection of a winter day
The speaker and their former lover were situated near a pond that appeared below a sun which seemed faded white, as though it had been reprimanded (“chidden”) by God
Grey leaves, which had fallen from an ash tree, were scattered on the ground
Hardy’s intention
Through the use of pathetic fallacy , the bleakness of the “winter day” and the dullness of the sun, Hardy creates a dismal and depressing mood
The white sun and falling leaves create a sense of decline: everything appears to be decaying, including the once fertile and natural elements
The personification of the withering leaves and the “starving sod”, symbolises the couple's relationship and emphasises the sense of despair and hopelessness
The portrayal of the whole world being “chidden” or punished by God also adds to the overall gloomy atmosphere
Lines 5-8
“Your eyes on me were as eyes that rove
Over tedious riddles of years ago;
And some words played between us to and fro
On which lost the more by our love.”
Translation
According to the speaker, the eyes of their lover/ex-lover appeared dull as they looked at each other, as if they were looking at an old riddle from long ago
The two have a brief conversation about who has suffered more as a result of their relationship
However, the conversation itself may have contributed to the decline in love between them
Hardy’s intention
Hardy focuses the reader’s attention on the couple who appear to be uninterested and bored with each other
The woman's eyes continuously wander, and they seem to engage in meaningless conversations, often referring to them as tedious or annoying riddles
The term “tedious” conveys a sense of monotony and repetitiveness, while “riddles” represents the challenging and infuriating nature of their unresolved arguments
Hardy uses the exchange of words to suggest that the couple are merely pretending to be in love and the ironic imagery reflects the frustrations inherent in their relationship
Lines 9-12
“The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing
Alive enough to have strength to die;
And a grin of bitterness swept thereby
Like an ominous bird a-wing…”
Translation
During the conversation, the speaker portrays the smile of their former lover on that day as bleak and lifeless, yet with a faint spark of life that slowly diminished
The speaker characterises the smile as bitter, drawing a comparison to a powerful bird soaring into the sky
Hardy’s intention
Hardy uses a stark contrast by juxtaposing the lover’s former warm and loving smile with “deadest”, emphasising the death of the relationship being described in this poem
The line “Alive enough to have strength to die” contrasts life and death, highlighting the woman's desire for the relationship to end
Additionally, the usage of “Grin of bitterness” serves as an oxymoron to emphasise her discomfort while not wanting to show it
The phrase “Ominous bird a-wing” is used to suggest that the relationship is flying away like a bird, with “ominous” warning of something terrible to come
Finally, the ellipsis suggests that time is passing by as the relationship decays
Lines 13-16
“Since then, keen lessons that love deceives,
And wrings with wrong, have shaped to me
Your face, and the God curst sun, and a tree,
And a pond edged with greyish leaves.”
Translation
A significant amount of time has passed
The speaker has come to the understanding that love deceives
The poem ends by the pond surrounded by grey leaves
Hardy’s intention
The speaker admits to feeling deceived by love and the use of alliteration through the repetition of the “w” sound in “wrings with wrong” adds emphasis to this sentiment and highlights the speaker's distress
The phrase “shaped to me” suggests that any negative incidents the speaker has had in relationships are linked to memories of standing by a lake with their former lover
The word “curst” replaces “chidden” to describe the sun here, which is a harsher term and indicates that the speaker may be even more resentful than before about what occurred in their past relationship
Furthermore, the shift in describing the sun from “white” to “God curst” signifies a shift in the speaker's emotions, from a state of neutrality to one of anger and resentment
The poem ends with a melancholic and depressing sentiment
Examiner Tips and Tricks
Examiners reward answers that notice how a poet uses setting to carry feeling. Hardy gives almost no action here, so the landscape does the work.
For example, you could write: “Hardy sets the scene by a pond where ‘the sun was white, as though chidden of God’, so even the light seems to have been told off”. Explaining how a place creates tone is strong analysis.
Writer’s methods
Although this section is organised into three separate sections — form, structure and language — it is important to take an integrated approach to AO2, focusing on the main themes and ideas of the poem and then evaluating how Hardy’s choices of language, structure and form contribute to these ideas. In essence, how and why the poet has made the choices they have, in relation to their intentions and message.
Focusing on the poet’s main ideas, rather than individual poetic techniques, will gain you far more marks. In the below sections, all analysis is arranged by theme, and includes Hardy’s intentions behind his choices in terms of:
Form
Structure
Language
Form
The poem is composed of 16 lines which are written in quatrains. The first three stanzas focus on the past meeting of two lovers and the final quatrain is a reflection of it.
Theme | Evidence | Poet’s intention |
|---|---|---|
Loss | 'Neutral Tones' is structured using quatrains and follows the traditional structure of an 'elegy' | An elegy is a lamentation poem composed in memory of a departed companion or loved one, which links to one of the themes of the poem |
Structure
The structure of the poem indicates that the speaker finds solace in the controlled style, which allows him to express his passionate feelings in a much more suppressed manner.
Theme | Evidence | Poet’s intention |
|---|---|---|
Memory | The poem consists of four regular quatrains which are rhymed in an ABBA pattern | The use of ABBA rhyme scheme in the poem suggests that the speaker is comforted by the constrained structure which enables him to convey his intense emotions in a more muted and controlled manner |
It reflects the writer's deliberate and measured reflections on the memory of his former relationship | ||
The regular and repetitive quatrains could also indicate that the memory has been replayed many times over in his thoughts | ||
Hardy employs an inconsistent rhythm throughout the poem | This could be viewed as a reflection of their unsteady and tumultuous relationship | |
The poem uses a circular structure | Hardy returns the speaker to his melancholic, sombre state, by ending the poem with the speaker gazing at the pond | |
The circular structure mirrors the speaker’s reluctance to let go of his painful memory and could allude to the speaker’s inability to move forward | ||
Bitterness | Hardy uses enjambment in the poem to increases its pace though he also slows it down by using caesura | While the enjambment creates some release within the tight structure of the poem, the caesurae almost leads to the creation of a suffocating and restricting tone and could signify a growing sense of anger |
This suggests the speaker is unable to completely free himself from the memory of his relationship |
Language
The poem's defeated tone underscores the risk of love resulting in loss and Hardy uses bleak imagery to signify this.
Theme | Evidence | Poet’s intention |
|---|---|---|
Memory | Hardy has written the poem in first-person past tense | This means that the viewpoint is limited to the speaker's perspective and suggests that it is a recollection of a memory: the overall tone of the poem is one of profound sadness, with no hint of positivity |
Hardy uses imagery to create a bleak atmosphere | The opening lines of the poem creates an intense image of cold and desolate surroundings | |
Hardy employs pathetic fallacy by describing “winter” to evoke feelings of sadness and coldness right from the beginning | Pathetic fallacy is used to depict the speaker's desperation and the first descriptions of the winter day indicate a dull and colourless environment, which signifies a lack of warmth or connection between the couple | |
The phrase “starving sod” is used as a metaphor to describe the soil while personifying it as miserable, emphasised further through the use of sibilance which is used to create a sense of despair | ||
Pain and loss | There is an absence of colour throughout the poem | The use of the word “neutral” in the title suggests a lack of passion or intensity |
Hardy's choice of words such as “grey”, “white”, and “ash” further reinforces this sense of lifelessness and emotional emptiness | ||
The language of colour used throughout the poem reflects the faded and colourless nature of the relationship, as well as the speaker’s state of mind and conveys a sense of melancholy and resignation | ||
The emotion of bitterness is personified, which suggests that nature is intentionally positioned against the couple’s relationship | ||
Hardy uses references to death throughout the poem to establish a foreboding tone | The smile of his former lover is characterised as “the deadest thing”, which indicates the torment of their former relationship | |
The poem's language is characterised by a lack of emotional expression | Phrases such as “the smile on your mouth was the deadest thing” and “love deceives” encapsulate the sense of emotional numbness and disillusionment that permeates the poem | |
Hardy's choice to convey complex emotions through understated language reflects the theme of suppressed feelings and the inability to fully express or confront the pain of lost love | ||
Bitterness | The poem employs the use of juxtaposition and oxymoron | Hardy presents the relationship as a series of opposites: instead of love there is coldness; instead of intimacy there is “wandering”; instead of genuine emotion, there is a forced smile |
The poem's title suggests that it does not embody excessive emotion or intense heartache | The writer has opted for a “neutral” and unfeeling tone: “neutral” describes both the winter scene, drained of bright colour, and the relationship, drained of hope and love while “Tones” can refer to colour and to mood | |
The word “greyish” is linked to the title “Neutral Tones” to suggest that the characters lack emotional interest in each other |
Context
Examiners are clear that context should not be written about separately. It is therefore important that you do not write about context separately, or include irrelevant biographical information about Thomas Hardy or the historical figures mentioned in the poem. The best way to include context is to start with the key themes and ideas in the poem, and then include an exploration of why the writer may have chosen to address these themes and ideas. This section has therefore been divided into two relevant themes that Hardy explores:
Pain and loss
Memory
Pain and loss
The 19th-century was a time of great exploration and discovery and in particular, science, medicine and psychology were all undergoing rapid changes and advances:
Victorians traditionally sought solace in the notion that religion was the only viable explanation for the natural world though the emergence of new scientific ideologies played a crucial role in challenging these established religious beliefs
There was a significant evolution in religious viewpoints which led to a wide array of religious beliefs amongst people:
Due to this diversity, there were often tensions between those who followed religious doctrines and those who sought to live freely without strictly adhering to religious conventions
While Hardy was raised in a Christian household and lived in a predominantly Christian society, he developed a critical stance towards traditional religious beliefs and institutions
In much of his writing, Hardy portrays a world in which traditional religious beliefs and moral codes are challenged or found wanting:
The poem conveys a sense of purposelessness that could be associated with this loss of faith
God's presence in the poem might indicate some sort of universal malevolence and the notion that love is bound to be futile
While Hardy rejected specific religious doctrines, he maintained a deep appreciation for the beauty of nature and the transcendent power of the natural world
It was widely recognised that Hardy's two unhappy marriages had an impact on his demeanour, resulting in him being perceived as insecure and sensitive:
These emotional struggles are effectively conveyed through the gloomy tone of his poem
Memory
In Victorian England, memory held a significant place in the cultural and societal fabric, often intertwined with the ideals of Romanticism:
During the Romantic period, memory was often celebrated as a powerful force that could transport individuals to a more idealised and sublime past:
Memory was often idealised and romanticised during this period and it was seen as a way to preserve and relive cherished moments
Romantic poets, such as William Wordsworth, emphasised the transformative power of memory in connecting individuals with nature, childhood innocence, and spiritual transcendence
It was associated with nostalgia and a longing for the past, particularly in the face of societal and industrial changes during the 19th century
Realism later emerged as a literary movement that aimed to depict the world and human experiences in a more truthful and realist manner, often challenging the idealised portrayals of earlier Romantic literature:
Although influenced by Romanticism, Hardy is often regarded as a realist writer and Neutral Tones exemplifies his realist tendencies
In the poem, Hardy challenges the notion of memory as something positive and instead presents it as a source of emotional emptiness and disillusionment
Hardy presents a more realistic and nuanced perspective on memory that aligns with his overall pessimistic and sceptical outlook on life and relationships:
The poem reflects the disappointment and emotional detachment that were common features of the realist approach
What to compare it to
The essay you are required to write in your exam should be an integrated comparison of the ideas and themes explored in two of your anthology poems (the one given on the exam paper and one other). It is therefore essential that you revise the poems together, in pairs, to understand how each poet presents key ideas and themes, in comparison to other poets in the anthology. Given that 'Neutral Tones' explores ideas of pain, loss and memories the following comparison would be a good place to start:
'Neutral Tones' and 'When We Two Parted'
For each pair of poems, you will find:
The comparison in a nutshell
Similarities between the ideas presented in each poem
Differences between the ideas presented in each poem
Evidence and analysis of these similarities and differences
'Neutral Tones' and 'When We Two Parted'
Comparison in a nutshell:
This comparison provides the opportunity to compare the poets’ attitudes towards pain, loss and memory.
Similarities:
Topic sentence | Both 'Neutral Tones' and 'When We Two Parted' explore the theme of lost love and its aftermath and describe the sorrow that it has brought upon the speaker. | |
|---|---|---|
Evidence and analysis | 'Neutral Tones' | 'When We Two Parted' |
'Neutral Tones' focuses on emotional detachment, disillusionment , and the decay of a relationship | 'When We Two Parted' examines the pain, longing and bitterness associated with the end of a love affair | |
The tone remains consistent throughout the poem, reflecting the speaker’s melancholy and resignation | The poem delves into themes of betrayal, secrecy, and the lasting impact of a broken bond | |
Hardy employs visual and sensory imagery to create a desolate and bleak atmosphere | Byron employs vivid and dramatic imagery to convey the intensity of the speaker’s emotions | |
The imagery is often colourless and lifeless, reflecting the decay of the relationship | The poem features images of darkness, coldness, and secrecy, reinforcing the feelings of betrayal and loss | |
Topic sentence | Both Hardy and Byron use a bitter tone to convey their sadness and sorrow. | |
|---|---|---|
Evidence and analysis | 'Neutral Tones' | 'When We Two Parted' |
The poem is narrated in the first person and the voice is Introspective and reflective | The poem also employs a first-person perspective, but the voice is more direct and confrontational | |
The narrator presents personal observations and reflections on the past | The speaker expresses a sense of hurt and addresses the absent lover directly, adding a sense of personal anguish to the poem | |
The poem conveys a sombre and restrained tone and the language conveys emotional emptiness and suppressed feelings | Byron’s poem carries a more intense and passionate tone and it evokes strong emotions such as grief, anger, and resentment | |
Differences:
Topic sentence | Both Byron and Hardy use structure and form differently to present the breakdown of a relationship in various ways. | |
|---|---|---|
Evidence and analysis | 'Neutral Tones' | 'When We Two Parted' |
The poem consists of four regular quatrains which are rhymed in an ABBA pattern | The poem consists of four stanzas comprising eight lines each, but the rhythm used is not uniform | |
The use of ABBA rhyme scheme in the poem suggests that the speaker is comforted by the constrained structure which enables him to convey his intense emotions in a more muted and controlled manner | The rhyme pattern follows an ABABCDCD scheme which, while more regular than the metre, adds a strong emphasis to the end of each line | |
It creates a sense of control and order that contrasts with the emotional content of the poem | The poem does not adhere to a specific structured form like 'Neutral Tones' and although it is similarly written in four quatrains, the rhyme scheme and metre varies which contributes to its emotional intensity and dramatic effect | |
Examiner Tips and Tricks
Examiners note that the strongest answers keep the whole poem in view. This one returns at the end to where it began, and an answer that stops earlier misses the design.
For example, you could write: “Hardy ends back at the pond, so the memory has become the only place the speaker can go”. Noticing a circular structure lets you write about form and feeling together.
Sources
AQA. (2015). Past and Present: Poetry Anthology. GCSE English Literature (8702). AQA.
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