Summary
In the poem, the speaker recounts standing beside an ex-partner as their relationship comes to an end. It is winter, and the white sunlight falls on a few gray leaves from an ash tree. The soil is not fit to grow anything. The speaker is aware that his partner's eyes reveal a removed boredom. It is as if the partner is focused on old riddles whose meanings were ascertained long ago. The two characters in the poem speak a little, but it is clear that the relationship is over. The words they speak further reduce their love, and they debate who has suffered the most.
The ex-partner smiles, but is devoid of any emotion. The smile is only barely alive, with just enough energy to show the death of the relationship. A bitter and rueful grin replaces the dead smile plastered on the ex-partner's face, and the speaker compares this grin to an ominous bird taking flight.
Because of this experience, the speaker decides that love is deceitful and harmful. The memories of this day (of the ex-partner's face and the barren winter landscape) remain with the speaker in the present day.
Analysis
In "Neutral Tones," the speaker synthesizes the memories of a desolate winter landscape with the end of a relationship. The poem's title represents the muted winter colors in the surrounding environment as well as the love draining from the relationship between the speaker and his ex-partner. Composed of four quatrains, the poem follows an enclosed rhyme scheme of ABBA. Ironically, this rhyme scheme is reminiscent of the first octave of Petrarchan sonnets (which typically deal with love), but here Hardy focuses on the bitterness of a breakup. The irregular meter could represent the speaker's strong emotions brewing beneath the veneer of indifference, as well as the emotional pain incurred by the mind’s insistence upon recalling a difficult moment. Despite the neutrality insisted upon in the title and in the colors mentioned in the poem, the speaker is left feeling quite angry and disillusioned.
The first stanza begins with the speaker standing alongside someone else next to a pond on a winter day. The relationship between the pair is undefined, but several details about the environment reflect the conflict between the two. The sunlight is "white, as though chidden of God," meaning that a higher power has apparently rebuked the scene. A few ash leaves are scattered on the "starving sod," showing how the soil is devoid of nutrients and is thus incapable of supporting growth. Ash wood is very strong and dense, but most ash trees are among the first to lose their leaves. This happens in autumn while the leaves are still green. The grayness of the leaves as well as the double meaning of the word "ash" (being both a tree and the remains of a fire) show how there is no hope for this relationship to rekindle. In this way, Hardy uses external nature to represent the speaker's internal state. The barren winter landscape parallels the ending of a relationship between lovers.
In the second stanza, the speaker describes the boredom evident in his ex-partner's eyes. The ex's eyes "rove / Over tedious riddles solved years ago." As eyes are often thought of as windows to the soul (meaning that they reveal inner emotions), these lines express the ex-lover's lack of interest and presence. The "tedious riddles solved years ago" could be actual riddles (showing the way that the ex is totally unfocused on the present situation), or they could be past issues in the relationship that were supposedly already resolved. The latter indicates that past conflicts and old resentments can resurface during a break-up. This line also suggests that the speaker has tired of the tedium of trying to figure out his (now ex) partner.
Continuing with the theme of riddles, the speaker describes how "some words played between" himself and his ex-partner, "to and fro." Since they are discussing pain and loss of love, the playfulness in this line juxtaposes the heaviness of what is being said. Either the conversation itself is diminishing the love between the pair, or they are debating who has suffered the most as a result of the relationship. The smile on the ex-lover's face is characterized as "the deadest thing / Alive enough to have strength to die." This shows that the death of the relationship is ongoing in this moment—there is not yet closure and healing. Instead, there is only the bitterness and heartache of the breakup. Hardy uses a simile to compare this to an ominous bird taking flight. When something is described as "ominous," it indicates that it brings the threat of something bad happening. Not only is the relationship between the speaker and his ex over, but it taints the speaker's future as well.
The use of ellipses at the end of the third stanza represents the way the speaker travels through his memories to arrive in the present day. It is not indicated how much time has passed, but it is clear that the breakup was a significant catalyst in the speaker's life, changing the way he regards love and relationships. The speaker is left with the "keen lessons that love deceives," giving an impression of disillusionment and isolation. Something "keen" is sharp and well-developed, meaning that the speaker's emotional trauma as a result of the failed relationship has permanently altered him. The speaker also concludes that love "wrings with wrong," indicating that it is an abomination. To "[wring]" something is to squeeze and twist it to force out liquid. This metaphor represents the speaker's belief that love is inherently "wrong:" incorrect, unjust, and immoral. The use of alliteration serves to highlight this negative association with love.
The speaker's pessimistic view of love brings to mind his ex-partner's face and the dreary scene of their break-up. The "God-curst sun" offers no warmth or consolation; what is often regarded as the source for all life here is damned. The poem ends with the image of the ash tree and "a pond edged with grayish leaves." A pond is a small body of still water, and the lack of movement alongside the grayish color of the leaves is meant to convey the speaker's apathy. But beneath this supposed neutrality exists the speaker's bitterness and anger.
