How is the story told in Hardy's "Neutral Tones"?

In the first stanza Hardy uses the word “chidden”, whereas “curst” is used for the same purpose in the final stanza which is an obvious shift between mild and harsh language. This perhaps shows Hardy losing his temper because of his emotional connection with the theme of the poem; death.

Following the apparent break up of a relationship the persona remembers a moment spent with their partner. The person feels deceived by love. As a result of this the setting is presented in a dead and neutral way using a semantic and connotations of death: “fallen from an ash and were gray”. The persona’s interpretation of his surroundings as “gray” illustrates his lack of emotion as it is a dull colour. It seems as if his experience of love has distorted the way he perceives his memories and nature. The verb “fallen” used in the past tense, shows that the story is a memory. It suggests a painful action making the reader feel that pain with the memory>the idea of falling demonstrates a decline over time of his feelings.

Hardy uses colour imagery of “white” which connotes a lonely feeling despite the two characters being in a relationship. This is because of how belligerent the characters are towards each other but don’t express it. Hardy only uses this colour once to emphasise its meaning. In the third stanza, Hardy uses an oxymoron describing a “smile”, a facial gesture associated with happiness and reassurance as the “deadliest thing”. This highlights the theme of death and also provokes emotion from the reader because of the casual manner the gesture depicted in which reminds the reader of the poems bitterness. However this oxymoronic metaphor continues after having left a strong impression on the reader; it is now described as only “alive enough to have the strength to die” which symbolizes Hardy’s aggression. Hardy’s use of expressive language in the third stanza has the objective of making the reader feel discourages which is a possible destination emotionally.

Structurally “neutral tones” is a short poem arraigned in four stanzas. The four stanzas have some relation to the four seasons of the year as there is a strong theme of nature throughout the poem. The poem starts and ends in the same place, the pond, this suggests the he cannot escape the never ending cycle of love and pain he has experience.