Does anyone know where i can find an explanation of the poem “Neutral Tones” by Thomas Hardy?
Pain, Distance and Time The lure of “Neutral Tones” by Thomas Hardy, is in its subtle familiarity. Although the poem describes the breaking off of a relationship, the reader quickly finds the speaker is neither fondly nor bitterly recalling the event. By avoiding every sensory image except for sight, abstaining from definition, and coloring in neither bright nor dark tones, the author purposefully distances the reader from the event. The poem’s appeal lies not in its allusion to lost love, but in the passing of pain with time. This pale scene reveals the aging of painful memories that occurs but each of us so often forgets. The first clue that the poem conveys something more than a painful memory is in the title. “Neutral Tones” immediately encourages the reader to postpone any positive or negative inferences until the author makes his meaning clear. In a sense we are left out rather then taken in. This is the first of many distancing devices. To describe the scene without placing the
