neutral tones is a poem about a man called Thomas hardy who broken up with his girlfriend.

love is presented as cursed and haunted in “neutral tones” by Thomas hardy.  He starts the poem off by describing a couple standing by a pond. This would be a romantic setting however Thomas hardy says it was on a “winters day” this unfortunately suggest that all the beautiful things in nature decay and die. This gives the reader a sense of foreboding, from the tradition from spring where everything blossoms and grows to autumn where nature starts to change colour. them winter. so this also gives us a sense of pathetic fallacy. in a strange way the dramatic setting reflects their relationship. On the 6th line Thomas hardy says she looks at him “over tedious riddles” this suggest that its almost as if he is now a puzzle to life. In the same paragraph he said “some words played between us” . by saying some he is not being spastic, so this shows he doest care. like they are now strainers.

Thomas hardy describes the girls smile as fake and deadly. he says this because there relationship is dead and there is no emotions left, another thing he says about her smile, is that it is “bitterness” the cold wind is grinding about there break up. almost as if the weather mocking there break up. but she doest want to hurt him to much. At the end of the paragraph he presents a bird as being ominous. he says this because ominous gives us a tense feeling that something terrible will happen. so when he says an ominous bird he is trying to get across that the bird will bring bad news.

in the very last paragraph