By Halima Elmajdoubi

Even before I learned how to read, I was an avid lover of story. Some of my earliest memories involve being lulled to sleep by books, planting in me an early passion for the written word that has only grown stronger over time. However, while I have always loved to read, there is an undeniable line drawn for me at poetry.

Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t as though I dislike all poetry. On the contrary, I’ve been introduced to a myriad of admittedly beautiful poems throughout my life. Despite their redeeming qualities, however, poems rarely enthrall me to the same degree that an essay, short story, or novel can. It is normally difficult for me to envision myself in the lines of a poem the way that I can effortlessly insert myself in the pages of a good novel, and as a result, I’ve avoided poetry whenever possible.

Then I came across “Neutral Tones” by Thomas Hardy, and my long standing aversion toward poetry was challenged.

As the speaker reflects on a former relationship, there is a tranquilizing rhythm to the piece, developing a scene so vivid that the reader cannot help but be drawn in. Captivated by each stanza, my own reading slowed to match the gradual development of the speaker’s thoughts and observations, so that I was left feeling as dejected as the speaker, something that I don’t often experience after reading a poem. The piece reads:

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 gray.

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.

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….

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.

“Neutral Tones” is the melancholic reflection on a relationship nearing its end, and the cruel lessons learned as a result. The poem unfolds through the speaker’s memory of a dismal winter day, a scene devoid of life. The sun is white, the trees are withered, and the ground is starved of nourishment. The speaker and their former lover, to whom the poem is addressed, stand together but are clearly divided, the addressee’s physical characteristics recalled by the speaker without warmth or affection.

The tone of the poem is cleverly “neutral” throughout. Though there are signs of bitterness, the speaker never lapses into disdain or disgust, a reserve that makes possible the tranquilizing rhythm that first drew me to the piece. Throughout the poem, Hardy also employs the metaphor of life as a natural cycle, which is first visible in the cold and dismal imagery that is prevalent throughout the poem. Just as the tone of the piece is frozen in a neutral state, the imagery of the poem remains both literally and metaphorically frozen, as well. And as the world of the poem reaches the culmination of its life cycle, the speaker’s own relationship draws to an end, culminating in what the reader can only infer to be the beginning of the next cycle, or the spring season, as the speaker adopts a new, albeit bleak, understanding of love.

The piece begins by establishing the somber setting while also introducing the metaphor of the natural life cycle that is prevalent throughout the piece:

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 gray.

The evidence of death and decay through the starving sod and falling gray leaves are evidence of the cycle of nature, that it is during the winter season that life gradually comes to an end. Though the reason that the speaker and their partner are in this position is not explicitly stated, the lifeless imagery confirms that this is not a joyous occasion, while the use of past tense also reveals that this moment is being recalled as a memory. 

In the stanza that follows, this concept of a cycle nearing its end is further developed by the speaker’s description of the addressee:

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.

Though the two stand together, there is an undeniable detachment between them. As opposed to fixed in the present, the eyes of the addressee are described “as eyes that rove” concerned with “tedious” confrontations of the past. The idea that words are “played” between them rather than discussed also emphasizes the continued loss of love between the characters, and the language that highlights this lost love reinforces the notion of a cycle coming to an end.

The first stanza establishes the diminishing life in their surroundings, while the second introduces the lack of harmony and affection between them. The absence of life, light, and affection in the poem thus far is reflective of the absence of hope in their relationship. Hardy continues:

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…

The addressee’s smile is disingenuous and forced, their “grin of bitterness” only “alive enough to have strength to die”. These oxymoronic images, as well as the words that played “to and fro” and the unforgotten “riddles of years ago”, depict the friction between them and their inability to move forward in harmony, that ultimately there is no hope for salvaging their relationship.

While the first three quatrains illustrated the speaker’s memory of that fateful day, the fourth stanza reveals the bleak lessons learned as a result:

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.

In this last quatrain, the poem shifts from the past to the present, and Hardy evokes the same images of the opening stanza, though the speaker and the addressee are no longer introduced as “we”. There is a repeated reference to God, as if the speaker believes this love affair to have been some kind of almighty punishment, and again there is also the pond “edged with grayish leaves”.  In the present, “wrings with wrong” and “keen lessons that love deceives” have shaped this memory, and the poem’s circular structure cleverly mirrors both the speaker’s developed understanding and the metaphor of the natural life cycle. After the withering of life that is attributed to the winter season, a rebirth will follow— not a miraculous rebirth of their relationship, but a rebirth of the speaker’s understanding of love. 

The content of the poem both reinforces and clashes with the poem’s form. Each quatrain is composed of an a-b-b-a rhyme scheme, and the rhymes that unite the first and fourth lines of every stanza are separated by the rhyming couplet pairing the second and third lines. This pattern cleverly alludes to the mental and physical divide between the speaker and the addressee. Additionally, the rhyming couplet that unites the second and third lines of every stanza ironically implies the idea of coupling, though the speaker and addressee are never united, at least emotionally, throughout the piece.

“Neutral Tones” explores the theme of love in a way that is both unique and striking, while also providing a broader lesson to the reader. Though the poem ends with a bleak realization, the speaker’s evolved understanding of love continues the life cycle metaphor. Though love may carry the potential for loss, a moment for reflection can also be gained, and this idea of renewal, though bittersweet, echoes the idea of spring. However, there is also a sense of irony in these last lines, as the poem never sees a shift from its melancholic nature. While the reader can infer that the life cycle will begin again, the world remains one of “neutral tones” for the speaker, mirroring that this former relationship has now permanently darkened their perception of love.

Though the poem is not lengthy, each line of the four quatrains brims with emotion, developing an intense scene that invites you to experience that dreadful winter day alongside the speaker. To all those that are a reader like myself, with a long history of indifference toward poetry, I implore you to read “Neutral Tones,” so that you too can experience your own change in understanding.