Neutral Tones

“Neutral Tones” is a 16-line lyric poem divided into four four-line stanzas. The poem does employ some narrative elements like character and setting but focuses on a singular remembered emotional moment relayed by the speaker. While the poem’s cadence seems to be quite even—the lines are equally divided into quatrains and seem of equal length—there is a subtle dissonance created by the use of meter. Metrically, the poem alternates between lines that employ iambs (an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one) and anapests (a three-syllable pattern of two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable). This helps to heighten the idea of two competing rhythms exhibited by the couple whose love is bandied about like their dialogue “to and fro” (Line 7). The end rhyme scheme is regular: ABBA CDDC EFFE GHHG. However, the use of internal rhyme—the internal “lay” (Line 3) rhyming with the end rhymes “day” (Line 1) and “gray” (Line 4)—as well as application of off-rhyme—as in “rove” (Line 5) and “love” (Line 8)—mitigate the sing-song quality of the verse and create an off-kilter feeling of subdued tension that belies the neutrality implied by the title.

“Neutral Tones” relies heavily on visual imagery as relayed by the speaker. This imagery makes the reader sympathize with the speaker as they convey what has happened in their relationship. The speaker tells us that the event took place in a specific locale on a winter’s day, measured by the presence of the “pond edged with grayish leaves” (Line 16), the glaring sun, and the barren ash trees. This visual specificity enhances the idea that the experience was both memorable and vivid and, thus, important. In turn, the reader believes this to be an accurate identification of the encounter at large. Credence is then automatically given to the speaker’s further observations, including those of the lover’s face. The lover’s roving glance is notable for supposedly equating the speaker to a “tedious riddl[e] of years ago” (Line 6). Further, we believe the observation that their smile turned into a “grin of bitterness” (Line 11). Because the speaker seems to convey the landscape accurately, the reader leaps to the conclusion that they are correctly observing the lover. However, it is important to note that what seems objective is completely subjective since the speaker is “shap[ing]” (Line 14) the lover’s countenance and the landscape after later learning of the beloved’s betrayal. Despite its seeming accuracy, the speaker is seeing what they want to see “since” (Line 13) the betrayal and relaying it to us. Their stress on visual imagery allows their narrative to take precedence as the correct view.