Neutral tones plastic notesheet

Neutral tones plastic notesheet

1. PLASTIC Poetry Notes – GCSE English Literature Past and Present: Poetry Anthology – Love and Relationships – Neutral Tones


Poetic devices and their effects – form
(ballad, sonnet, free verse, dramatic monologue),
alliteration, rhyme, rhythm, onomatopoeia,


‘We stood by a pond that winter day.’- symbolism


This shows the lack of movement in the poem and
symbolises the feeling of stagnation in the
couple’s relationship.

‘rove’- Anagram
‘Over tedious riddles’

Rearrange to make the word ‘over’. Our eyes rove
over the words of the poem, as the woman’s eyes
searched the man, trying to understand him. We
are also put in the position of trying to
understand the scene, and the relationship
between the two figures.
Rhymes between lines 1&4 2&3



The ABBA rhyme scheme that the poet uses does
not permit any escape. The inconsistent and
stumbling rhythm of the lines indicates that the
relationship has no life left in it.
Language and its effects – what sort of words
are in the poem? Violent, loving, colloquial, archaic,
semantic fields, diction, religious, romantic language

‘They had fallen from an ash, and were grey.’

Explicit wordplay - such as the pun on ‘ash’ in the
first stanza-the ‘ash tree’, but the ‘gray of the
leaves’ suggesting the ashes of a burnt fire.
(Conjuring up the flames of a burning love or
passion that has now passed.)
‘Neutral tones’



Euphemistic language - The title is a euphemism
as it tries to depict the scene in a unbiased way
but the poem shows the pain of the writer
The woman’s mouth is the ‘deadest thing’
(superlative) yet ‘Alive enough’. This is
oxymoronic
The ‘smile’ is also a ‘grin of bitterness.’
(juxtaposition)


The neutrality is actually bitterly sardonic – we
see how the lover is cold and unloving – her smile
is ironic and flashes enough life to end their
relationship. The ‘grin of bitterness’ is more of a
snarl than a smile of joy. It seems that the female
lover can end the relationship with a sense of
gleeful power where the speaker is destroyed.
Alternative interpretations – Can quotations
‘Wrings with wrong’


The twisting of ‘wrings’ into ‘wrong’ in the second line of the
final stanza is appropriate, not only because the word
‘wrong’ is ‘wrung’ or twisted (something you wring, or twist,
in your hands, so that it has literally gone wrong) but also

2. PLASTIC Poetry Notes – GCSE English Literature Past and Present: Poetry Anthology – Love and Relationships – Neutral Tones


be read in two ways for different meanings?

because it poses the idea of wringing out the last vestiges of
the relationship between the man and the woman, like a
damp cloth being wrung out.

‘As though chidden of God’




Their relationship was for him a spiritual union.
God has rebuked the sun for shining – The world
feels cold – which emphasises the emotional
impact of the break-up

Structure and its effects – tonal shifts, pace,
caesura, what rhyme stresses, beginning, middle, end,
repetition, dialogue and where it happens, enjambment

‘Since then, keen lessons’- Caesura


Highlights the shift/pause in time. Stresses how
he has learned something in that time.
Punctuation and caesura in the last stanza


Lots of caesura and pauses in the rhythm of the
last stanza suggest a breaking down of his
emotions and the sharp, acute painful memories
Enjambment of ‘rove...over’ Suggests the constant power of the lover in the
situation – but also the tedium the lover feels at
having to look at the speaker – constant and
dreary
Tone and its effects – talking about moods
which are evoked and where, narrative voice

‘The smile on your mouth the deadest thing.’
‘Alive enough to have the strength to die.’
‘like an ominous bird wing...’


The tone of this poem seems both bitter and
profoundly depressed. It’s written in the first
person, but feels strangely detached. Perhaps the
person is distancing themselves as a form of
protection. It is unclear whether the poet is
simply stating a fact or whether he is blaming
himself or the woman. Is the poem primarily
about himself, or about the pain of love?

‘grey’

The first stanza sets up the dark, cold feel of the
break-up and it ends emphatically on ‘grey’ – it
foregrounds the notion of death.

Juxtaposition of ‘We and winter’


It moves from a tone of togetherness to a tone of
coldness – shows the sudden change that can

3. PLASTIC Poetry Notes – GCSE English Literature Past and Present: Poetry Anthology – Love and Relationships – Neutral Tones


happen in a relationship
Imagery and its effects - metaphor, simile,
personification, visual sense

‘Your face, and the God-curst sun, and a tree, and
a pond edged with Greyish leaves.’

We are able to experience what the narrator
imagines. whenever the narrator has had similarly
bitter experiences which have shown the fact that
love is not permanent and it can have a deceptive
side to it.


‘fallen from an ash, and were gray.’
‘Greyish leaves.’
‘The sun was white’


Everything is described as lifeless and decaying
and the vibrancy of nature has been replaced by
an absence of colour – gray and white dominate
‘Like an ominous bird a-wing’


Recalls a raven – suggestive of death, but also
shows how fleeting the happiness the lover once
had for the speaker is now
Context – authorial, social and historical

Thomas Hardy is best known as a novelist and this fame has long overshadowed his reputation as a
poet. Most of his poems are “movingly mournful” as they were written soon after the death of his first
wife. Written in 1867, this poem was part of an anthology called Wessex Poems that was published in
1898. Much of Hardy’s work is marked by a strong streak of pessimism and this poem, Neutral Tones, is
no exception to that rule. Hardy’s attitude to life was tempered by many things: rapid industrialization
which saw traditional life changing apace that unsettled Hardy, the expansion of the British Empire
that he opposed, the failure of his first marriage and his opposition to change. In Neutral Tones, Hardy
carefully examines a dying relationship that once a source of delight. A state of melancholia is invoked
in the reader by using the sombre and cold environment as a metaphor.