Extended commentary of ‘Neutral Tones’ by Thomas Hardy Essay

On the Title: â€Å"Neutral Tones† encourages the reader to postpone any immediate inferences about the poem. It also refers to the muted (â€Å"monochrome†) colour scheme found in the first and last stanzas; these colours, in turn, are used by Hardy to emphasise the blandness/†deadness† of the emotions between the persona and his love. Thus the title is an introduction to both the poem’s images and emotional back-drop. Themes: Love (cruelty of it), Distance, Pain Overall Structure: A four stanza lyric with a continuous A/B/A/B rhyme scheme. These repeated ideas may add to the idea of monotony or dullness in emotion. This is a weak idea, however. First Stanza Notes: Hardy presents a scene and a persona. The use of the personal pronoun â€Å"we† has two effects: 1) It establishes a subtle familiarity between the reader and the persona – we can partially associate with the persona if he/she (sex is not made explicitly clear) through the simple use of the pronoun. 2) The lack of fixed gender does also add to a feeling of distance – distancing effects are used throughout the poem and will be explored. This particular one is maintained throughout. The scene presented is one of two figures standing by a pond; nearby sits a â€Å"sod† – a small grass turf. The description of this scene is incredibly important to the understanding of the poem; it sets the mood and leads to an eventual repetition of the image itself (last verse). The scene is devoid of colour, Hardy-esque by character and elegiac in tone. HEREBY NOTE: Hardy only uses the sense of sight in this poem (a nuance maintained throughout) – this is the only sense which can be used from afar. Thus we discover another distancing effect. The scene is devoid of colour – Hardy is introducing his colour scheme. As previously discussed, this reflects the muted nature of emotion expressed in the poem. Perhaps one can label the colours monochrome? Evidence, if needed in an exam, with brief exploration: * â€Å"Sun was white†; suggesting a light drained of colour. This phrase becomes important when considering the other images associated with the sun and sunlight. â€Å"Chidden of God† means ‘told off’ by God. This is an intentionally extreme image, certainly a rather bleak one! Compare with the ‘God-curst sun’ in fourth stanza. * â€Å"Few leaves†; weakest of the quotes. Indicates a lack of green on the sod (in terms of numerical value). * â€Å"Starving sod†; the grass is dying, and therefore turning brown. Like dried grass in the summer? * â€Å"Fallen from an ash†; significant choice of tree (obscure point though). Ash is associated implicitly with death. * â€Å"Gray†; for use when desperate. The colours are numbed, as to reflect how the breakup of a relationship can be as numbing. Quote SLS: â€Å"Hints towards a passionless palate of senses.† Second Stanza Notes: Hardy reveals the meaning/purpose of his scene in this stanza, by explaining and poetically exploring the relationship between the persona and his (former) love. The muted colour scheme, it becomes clear, does have the effect above described. * â€Å"Your eyes on me were as eyes that rove/ Over tedious riddles of years ago;† This line indicates both the trivial nature that the persona associates with the couple’s ‘riddles’ (problems?) now, and the implied importance of these problems possessed in earlier days. What does this change tell us? * Perhaps that the couple grew cold and got bored with one another’s problems, hence the use of ‘tedious’. The line also suggests that the ‘riddles’ used to be solved, or that they have recurred. Remember that the partner is both unnamed and ‘unspecified’ in any way – perhaps he/she has grown so cold to the extent that he/she sees the persona only in terms of what ‘was’? It is negative thought in any case. Quote SLS: â€Å"They see previous mysteries which no longer excite them†. Indeed, Hardy continues to suggest both the boredom created within their relationship and uses more distancing techniques in the next lines: â€Å"And some words played between us to and fro/ On which lost the more of our love† Note how the words are given physical attributes, or entities, as opposed to acoustic ones. We can figuratively â€Å"see† the words (because they are ‘played’ between the figures), but can’t hear them. This reinforces our idea of distance, in that the scene is almost behind a glass screen, where the sexes of the characters are blurred, we can see only particular details and cannot hear, smell or touch anything. As before said, this allows the reader to associate with the persona, albeit vaguely. Boredom reinforced; ‘played between us’ suggests some crude game – these problems seem trivial and dull now. And they lost the more of their love on them – the games didn’t do the relationship any good! Third Stanza Notes: Hardy recreates the moment at which the love died, and the relationship fully ended. To achieve this, he focuses on the partner’s mouth. â€Å"The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing/ Alive enough to have strength to die;† The use of an oxymoronic superlative stresses the death of emotion between the pair, further emphasised by the enjambment used – it highlights both â€Å"the deadest thing† and â€Å"Alive enough†, making such an image both stark and even more surprising. The image presented, as if the smile embodied the relationship, in one which is so close to death but has enough physical strength to complete the physical action of dying. An odd idea, but it works effectively. Note how the juxtaposition between life and death presents further contrast (when comparing poems, this becomes important!). Ad. [As a further distancing technique, observe how Hardy keeps only to sight; he uses the smile to fully embody the relationship.] However, Hardy does not end his onslaught of depression there: â€Å"And a grin of bitterness swept thereby/ Like an ominous bird a-wing.† Hardy here notes the transformation of the lover’s weak smile to an ex-lover’s grin, a positively relished expression of bitterness. As the reader, it is impossible to discern exactly who is relishing the moment; is it the partner, in a very cruel statement of emotion? Or is it the persona, in some oddly malicious â€Å"reverie-state†, remembering this moment and the pain it brought to him then, only to scorn it now, as ‘keen lessons’ in love have numbed the emotional agony? (Probably the former, as the latter changes the entire dynamic of the poem!) In any case, it is another confusion of oxymoronic imagery (grins and bitterness tend to be mutually exclusive) to express the pain of the relationship’s end; it certainly emphasises a strong sense of emotion. Hardy’s use of such emotive language may be considered out of place in a poem all out numbing pain and emotion; surely an â€Å"ominous bird a-wing† would fit better in Macbeth than next to a grey pond? Consider this possible weakness of this for yourself. (It might just be a forced rhyme.) Fourth Stanza Notes: Time is the opening note upon Hardy opens the fourth stanza, simply by using the words â€Å"Since then†. They put the reader in the present; indeed, by implication, this emphasises how the rest of the poem was in the past. It’s a memory! What consequence does this bear? * El Nombre Uno) [And yes, I do think that Hardy should have been Mexican. One can have a lot of fun with a Poet in a sombrero.] Simply, it is another distancing technique. Distance in time! * Numà ©ro Deux: [Hardy eating snails?] The present tense allows for the circularity of the main image in the poem – see hence. â€Å"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 grayish leaves.† At last, Hardy arrives at the crux of his poem; that Love deceives, lies and hurts. The fact of this (these â€Å"lessons†) takes on the mental image of the scene earlier described – it IS a memory, and a blurry one, given the sparse details described in the poem. In a little more detail, there are two phrases which must be analysed: I) â€Å"God-curst sun† is even more emotive that the previously described â€Å"chidden of God†. The variation in terms should be explored. The severity of judgement, carried out by none other than the almighty, presents us with a very bleak image – the sun has physically paled under the strain. II) â€Å"Wrings with wrong† is obviously emphasised by the alliteration and the harsh consonance which accompanies it. But does the sense of torsion implied by the word â€Å"wrings† suggest a tearing of a relationship? Perhaps. Note the continued use of the word ‘and’; does this not show the memory is broken and returns to the persona mentally in small pieces, thus adding to the distance created once again? Indeed, along with the variation in terms, it gives the impression of a minimalist, mottled and monochrome image, like a half-remembered dream. Is there a willingness to forget it? Does the persona want to avoid further pain by remembering the image, thus has repressed it along with the associated emotions? (Freudian psychoanalyst in the room.) On the same plane of thought, but to reach a different a conclusion, consider this thesis: the memory has actually faded already, either due to Time or a willing repression. We are reading about a faded memory, as opposed to the persona writing down his VIVID memory in order to repress it himself. Like the First World War poets. Difficult concepts†¦ I say this because the image obviously embodies the emotion, and the circular usage of these conjoined principles proves that the memory is haunting the persona. But if the memory is fading, as shown by all of the distancing techniques, then have the memories accompanying it faded along with it too? (So, dear Mr.) Conclusion. Two ideas. 1) In writing the poem and using the distancing techniques, the persona is neutralising the pain (right now, that is, given that literature is a verbal suspension of time) and is establishing ‘neutral tones’. 2) The memory has already faded along with the pain. This is a mere statement of the fact. ‘Neutral Tones’ have been established.