The beginning of the poem “Absence” is somewhat different:
“I visited the place where we last met.
Nothing was changed the gardens were well tended.
The fountains sprayed their usual steady jet;
There was no sign that anything had ended
And nothing to instruct me to forget.”
This verse is the description of the place where Elizabeth and her lover had last met. She sees that nothing has changed about it the place “the gardens were well tended” and “their usual steady jet” these two things were just the same the last time she had been there. As nothing had changed she felt that nothing should have changed with her but it had and she has not yet forgotten her former relationship.
The second verse in Thomas Hardy’s poem “Neutral Tones” is about her, his former lover.
“Your eyes on me were 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.”
This verse is the last conversation that Thomas had with his lover. “Your eyes on me were that rove” this line tells us that she is questioning him her confidence in him is lost. She no longer has any love for him. “And some words played between us to and fro” This is a metaphor used instead of talked it is the description of their relationship perhaps they didn’t talk much and perhaps through their lack of communication is the reason for their ending of their relationship.
The second verse in Elizabeth Jennings’ Poem “Absence” is again a verse about how things were so good around her and yet she was in turmoil on the inside
“The thoughtless birds that shook out of the trees,
Singing an ecstasy I could not share,
Played cunning in my thoughts. Surely in these
Pleasures there could not be a pain to bear
Or any discord shake the lever breeze.”
The birds singing an ecstasy, the birds were happy but Elizabeth was unhappy the sound of the birds made her feel almost happy and she believed that “in these pleasures there could not be a pain to bear” she thought that when thing around her were so great and joyful she should also be joyful. But unfortunately Elizabeth is unhappy.
The next “Neutral Tones” verse. Verse 3 is also about her.
“The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing
Alive enough to have the strength to die;
And a grin of bitterness swept thereby
Like an ominous bird a-wing….”
“The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing” this is a paradox statement, which is contradictory. Smiling as if everything is okay but Thomas realises that she has no love for him and that this is it. He has misjudged her. The relationship is now dying and fizzling out.
The final verse in Elizabeth Jennings’ poem “Absence” is about Elizabeth thinking of the place and how she has lost so much and it has not.
“It was because the place was just the same
That made you absence seem a savage force,
For under all the gentleness came
An earthquake tremor: fountain, birds and grass
Were shaken by my thinking of your name.”
In this verse Elizabeth feels really depressed and at a loss even by the very thought of her former lovers name. “For under all the gentleness came, An earthquake tremor…shaken by my thinking of your name” It is clear that she has not gotten over the end of her relationship just yet.
The final verse in Thomas Hardy’s poem Neutral Poems is the summary of what he had learned from that event.
“Since then, keen lessons that love deceives,
And wrings with wrong, have shaped to me
Your face, and the God-crust sun, and a tree,
And a pond edged with greyish leaves.”
Thomas realises that love deceives and that is can be very bitter or sharp when it does so. And it tortures him and has shaped him. He will not fall into the same trap again.