In the poem neutral tones , the feeling of love is presented as haunting because in the poem it is picturing a break up and and the reactions to the situation. the fact that the person who is receiving the break up cant get it out of his head presents their love as haunting because its like a stained memory that he will never forget.
Thomas hardy begins the poem by describing the setting of the break up when he explains that they were standing by a pond on a winter day. he also uses metaphors like ” and the sun was white , as though chidden of god”. this creates a sense of foreboding and try to say that the sun is drifting behind the clouds as if it had been told of by god . this gives the idea that some thing negative is about to happen in the beginning of the poem because the sum would have represented happiness but all of a sudden it starts to fade away which gives the impression that happiness it also fading away.
The poem continues to give the impression of negativity by saying “and few leaves lay on the starving sod;- they had fallen from ash , and were grey. the leaves represent their loves and gives the impression that their love is getting old and also dying when is says it fell from ash and turned grey.
The quote ” your eyes on me were as eyes that rove over tedious riddles of years ago” try to describe the feelings and thought of the girl that is breaking up with him as if she were trying to say that she dose not even know who he id any more and she was confused about her feelings
In the middle of the poem he says “and some words played between us to and fro on which lost the more by our love” he try to explain that they were having a conversation but the word that were being said dose not even mean anything any more because all that matters is the current situation , that they have broken up .
In the third paragraph is explains that their relationship is dying almost already dead but it still has enough life to end .
In the last paragraph he says “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” in this quote he try to explain that he has learnt his lessons about love and uses a metaphor to try and describe the fact that if love was inside a rag if you rung it it will leak with everything wrong about love and that its too painful to bare . he also try to say that every time he sees certain things like the sun the pond the leaves and everything about love he sees her face and haunts him and stains his memory forever .
Thomas hardy uses personification to describe a “starving sod”; which is the ground . this describes the ground as a person which describes the way their love is dying and struggling to survive.
I think that she is trying to say that she wants to end the relationship where it says “the smile on your mouth was the deadest thing alive enough to have strength to die”. This suggests that she is unhappy and she is trying to make the situation as simple as possible . Also at the beginning it describes the setting as by a pond on a winter day and leave fall from a tree. All of these factors sets the tone of the poem from the start which is sad and negative the poem is written in past tense which means the person is reminiscent on the moment and trying to remember the past. He also presents love as haunting because he try’s to express that once you fall in love it will never go away because you think about it too much so effectively haunting you.there is a quite in the poem that reads “and the sun was white , as though children of God “. their love .
In conclusion, I believe that Thomas Hardy has used the theme of their relationship to prove his ponit that there were curse on them and how she had the strength to end their relationship to show how it ends the way he use lots language devices this what I believe he wanted the neutral tones to make the reader feel how he does about this relationship.
React!