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I can explain how Hardy conveys the speaker's feelings about the breakdown of their relationship.

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This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2023), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

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Key learning points

Hardy recalls a devastating moment of separation in a romantic relationship.
The desolate setting reflects the speakers despairing and hopeless emotions.
The speaker's love for the subject seems to have been unrequited at the end of their relationship.
At the end of the poem the speaker shifts to the present tense to reflect the enduring impact of the separation.
The poem could reflect Hardy's unconventional and pessimistic view of romantic love.

Common misconception

The poem is set by a pond where a couple are walking.

The poem is set in the present day (for the speaker) and the speaker is looking back on the memory of walking around a pond with their ex-partner.

Keywords

Desolate - barren, deserted, devoid of life or hope
Hopeless - despairing, lacking optimism or positive expectations
Unrequited - unanswered, not reciprocated or one-sided
Quatrain - a four-line stanza in a poem
Melancholic - something or someone characterised by a deep sadness within

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Hello, everyone.

My name's Ms. Keller, and welcome to today's lesson.

In this session, we're going to be exploring the poem \"Neutral Tones\" by Thomas Hardy.

So by the end of this lesson, we'll be able to explain how Hardy conveys the speaker's feelings about the breakdown of their relationship.

So let's have a look at today's keywords.

We have desolate, hopeless, unrequited, quatrain, and melancholic.

So let's look at what these words mean.

Well, if something is desolate, it is barren, deserted, devoid of life or hope.

If someone is hopeless or a situation is hopeless, it means that it's despairing, lacking optimism or positive expectations.

Unrequited means unanswered, not reciprocated or one-sided.

And the context that we usually see the word unrequited in is when it's referring to love.

So unrequited love is when you love someone, but perhaps they don't love you back, and that's the context we're going to be considering it in today.

A quatrain is a four-line stanza in a poem.

And melancholic means something or someone characterised by a deep sadness within.

So how is today's lesson going to look? Well, we are going to start by thinking about who Thomas Hardy was, and then we're gonna think about what happens in the poem.

And then finally, we're going to consider how Hardy uses form and structure.

So let's get started.

Who was Thomas Hardy, our poet? Well, he grew up in rural Dorset, which is down on the south coast of England.

And it's a place that is known for its idyllic scenery, which means that it's a place of beautiful countryside and sweeping landscapes, in particular, coastal landscapes.

He wrote \"Neutral Tones\" in 1867, which was during the Victorian era.

And at this point, I would like to pause for a quick discussion.

What do you already know about the Victorian era? You may have come across it in your history lessons or perhaps when studying a different literary text in English.

So scale your minds back to your prior knowledge and see what you already know.

Perhaps discuss this in pairs or small groups, or if you are working on your own, that's okay.

Don't worry.

Perhaps make a mind map in your exercise book or on the paper in front of you.

Pause the video now for a few moments while you have your discussion.

And then when you are ready to click play, we'll continue.

Welcome back.

Some fantastic discussions there.

And interestingly, as with all discussions about our prior knowledge, it's really great to see such a variety of ideas because everybody is bringing something different to the discussion, perhaps a different lesson that they remember learning about the Victorian times or a different book perhaps, or film they've watched that has given them an insight into that historical context.

There are four main things about the Victorian era that I'd like to focus on here.

So first of all, the Victorian times had a female queen, Queen Victoria, and this came with an improvement to some, but not all, and this is very important, not all rights for women.

So during the Victorian times, we did see the rise of feminist movements.

For example, there was an outcry for an improvement of women's rights, and it meant that this important issue was suddenly on the table for discussion.

So let's look at another important aspect of Victorian life, and that was the British Empire, which during this time, expanded to make Britain the most powerful trading nation in the world.

And this resulted in Britain becoming a very wealthy country.

Let's look at a different aspect from the Victorian era, the Industrial Revolution.

So what was the Industrial Revolution? Well, it was a period of great scientific and technological change where Victorian society saw the invention of lots of life-changing machinery such as the steam engine, aeroplanes , radio, electric lighting, all of which changed the day-to-day life of Victorians.

And also, the Industrial Revolution changed the landscape of work in Britain due to the invention of machine manufacturing.

All across the country, factories were popping up and this meant that cities often became overcrowded and living conditions were squalled and cramped.

And the pollution from these machines meant that big cities, for example, London, became dingy, grey, unsanitary places.

And the last important thing that I'd like to focus on from the Victorian era is that it was a class-based society.

Class was very important in Victorian times and there was a big divide between the rich and the poor.

So let's think back to Thomas Hardy and how perhaps living in this society may have influenced him.

So Thomas Hardy's poetry is characterised by these hopeless and melancholic undertones that we are going to see when we come on to reading \"Neutral Tones\".

And remember, hopeless and melancholic are some of our key words from that lesson.

Meaning hopeless, there's nothing for him to look forward to, and melancholic, characterised by that sadness within.

And it has been argued that this pessimistic, negative writing was a response to two things.

Firstly, Hardy's unhappy first marriage, and secondly, his negative fuse about how the Industrial Revolution was spoiling the British countryside.

Remember, he grew up in the idyllic scenery of Dorset.

Some of our oak students began looking at the title of this poem, \"Neutral Tones,\" and thinking about the how that might link to the wider context.

And I had some very interesting opinions.

I'd like you to take a few moments to look at these opinions and perhaps discuss with the people around you which one you most agree with.

Again, if you're working on your own, that's absolutely fine.

Just make a few notes on your paper or in your exercise book.

Press pause now.

And then when you are ready to continue and feedback your responses, click play and we'll carry on.

Okay, welcome back.

Some really interesting debates taking place there with people not only putting forward which opinion that they agree with, but starting to use justifications and reasons to back up those ideas, which is fantastic.

So I just wanted to unpick a few really great responses that I overheard.

First of all, well done if you picked up on this idea that both of these responses are valid.

They both linked to things that we know about Thomas Hardy's life, that he had this unhappy first marriage and that he was frustrated by the impact of the Industrial Revolution.

So when we were looking at Sam's answer, I overheard a lot of people picking up on that idea that the word \"neutral\" could link to these colours.

A lot of people found Sam's opinion on that to be quite compelling and convincing, that this idea of the neutral tones could suggest a washed out image of the countryside, that the vivid colours of nature were becoming washed out and dirty-looking and bland because of what the Industrial Revolution was doing to the natural landscape.

And then looking at Andeep's answer, again, we had lots of people particularly using that word \"semi-autobiographical\" here to refer to something that somebody has written about their own life.

And that is a really fantastic piece of vocabulary that is useful to have when you're writing about this poem, because arguably, the neutral could relate to the speaker's feelings about the breakdown of their relationship.

The tones here perhaps being emotional tones, the mood, how somebody is feeling.

So let's pause here and check our understanding.

I'd like you to have a look at this statement and decide whether you think it is true or false.

It is likely that Hardy had negative views about the Industrial Revolution.

So pause the video for a few moments while you decide, and then when you're ready to continue, click play and I'll reveal the answer.

Well done if you said it was true.

So now I would like you to have a look at these two justifications and think really clearly about which one you think best justifies that statement at the top.

Pause the video for a few moments while you make your mind up.

And then when you're ready to continue, click play and I'll reveal the answer.

Well done if you said the answer was A.

His poetry often implied that the Industrial Revolution was spoiling the British countryside.

Okay, it's time for us to practise this contextual knowledge that we've been acquiring during the first part of the lesson.

So I'd like you to bring together everything that you have learned so far about Thomas Hardy and the Victorian era, and write a summary of the wider context of \"Neutral Tones\" using all of the words from that vocabulary bank below.

So pause the video here while you give this a really good go, bringing all that knowledge together.

And then when you are ready to feedback your answer, click play and we'll continue.

Welcome back.

I hope you feel like you've had a good chance to practise your contextual knowledge.

So here's what you could have written.

\"Neutral Tones\" was written in 1867 during the Victorian era.

The poem's pessimistic tone was characteristic of Thomas Hardy's writing.

It has been argued that he wrote this poem to reflect on his unhappy first marriage or as a response to his frustrations about the impact of the Industrial Revolution on the British countryside.

In purple there, we have got all the keywords highlighted from that vocabulary bank.

So take a moment to read through your own answer again and tick off where you have included each of those words from the vocabulary bank.

Have you included them all? If you have, well done.

If not, just take a few moments to perhaps redraft some sentences or add another one at the end to include all of those words.

Pause the video for as long as you need to, and then when you're ready to continue, click play.

And now we are ready to move on to the second part of the lesson.

So I'd like to start off by reading \"Neutral Tones\" together.

As you read, I would like you to make notes on who the characters are in the poem, where the poem is set, and what is happening.

\"We stood by a pond that winter day, and the sun was white as though chidden of God, and a few leaves lay on the starving sod.

They had fallen from an ash, and were grey.

Your eyes on me were eyes that rove over tedious riddles over years ago, And some words played between us to and fro, on which lost the more by our love.

The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing.

Alive enough to have strength to die, and a grin of bitterness swept thereby like an ominous bird, a wing.

Since then, keen lessons that love deceives, and rings with wrong have shaped to me your face, and the God curst sun, and a tree, and a pond edged with greyish leaves.\" I would like you to take a moment to discuss what has happened.

So pause the video while you have a discussion with the people around you and write your summary.

And then when you are ready to continue, click play and we'll carry on.

So here's an example of how you could have summarised the poem.

The speaker reflects on their memory of the day they realised their relationship was ending.

So let's have a look at how that message is conveyed to us across the stanzas of this poem.

So we're going to track the journey that it takes.

So with the first answer, the speaker sets the scene by describing the landscape around the pond on that winter day, and we've got the idea of it being that day.

We know that day is a significant day to our speaker.

And we've got our setting there, a natural landscape around pond.

In stanza two, the speaker's partner gives them a look that causes them to reflect on all the conflict and the crossed words in their relationship.

In stanza three, the partner's smile is so emotionless that the speaker realises their love is unrequited, so not returned, and the partner feels only boredom and resentment.

So across these two stanzas, we're getting this idea that the relationship certainly wasn't perfect.

As in stanza two, it was one where perhaps the couple experienced conflict.

And then also we're getting a bit of an idea of the speaker's partner's feelings here in stanza three.

The speaker's partner is perhaps falling out of love with the speaker.

And then in the last stanza, the text shifts to the present or the present for the speaker, and it conveys the speaker's feelings now.

That day led to the speaker losing faith in love.

So in that last stanza, they're looking back on that experience at the pond and how their partner acted, and they're describing and explaining how this experience has caused them perhaps to give up on love.

So let's check our understanding of what happens in the poem.

Which of these best describes what happens in the final stanza? I'd like you to have a read of the three options and decide which one you think best describes the final stanza.

Pause the video while you have a read and then click play when you are ready to continue, and I will reveal the answer.

Welcome back.

Congratulations if you said B.

In the final stanza, the focus shifts to the present and the speaker reflects on the day at the pond and how they now feel about love.

So now it's time to practise our knowledge of what happens in the poem, and I'd like you to do that by completing this table.

So I'd like you to have a really good go at this.

Take as long as you need.

Perhaps reread the poem a couple of times.

Grab some highlighters or a different colour pen and begin annotating if you'd like to, or even work together in pairs or small groups to discuss your responses.

Pause the video here and then when you're ready to continue, click play and we'll feedback some responses.

Welcome back.

Could see lots of people putting a really, really fantastic effort into that task.

So well done.

So let's have a look at what you might have written in these boxes.

And as we're going through, compare what's written here with your answers.

But remember, in English, there is never just one right answer.

So don't worry if what you can see here isn't word for word exactly the same, or perhaps if you have chosen a slightly different quote, that's okay and it could still be valid.

What is most important is that you've correctly summarised what happens in that stanza and that your quote and the language of your quote links to what you've said in that other box.

So here is what you might have written.

In stanza one then, the speaker describes the desolate landscape as they walk around the pond with their partner.

And some examples of supporting evidence that you could have chosen, \"The sun was white, as though chidden of God,\" and \"starving sod\".

In stanza two, the partner's look causes the speaker to reflect on a verbal conflict in their relationship.

And for evidence, you could have had the \"eyes that rove, over tedious riddles of years ago\".

And stanza three, the partner's smile suggests they are bored and bitter.

The speaker's love is unrequited.

For evidence you could have said, \"The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing.\" And for the last answer, now in the present, the speaker reflects on how this memory caused them to lose faith in love.

And you could have said, \"Wings with wrong, have shaped to me, your face, and the God curst sun, and a tree, and a pond.\" So what I would like you to do now is have a look at these quotations and I would like you to zoom in on a key word or phrase in each quote.

Doing this helps us to provide a detailed analysis of Hardy's language choices.

Pause the video for as long as you need to, and then when you're ready to feedback your responses, click play.

Okay, welcome back.

So let's have a look at the key words or phrases in some of these quotes.

So if we take that first quote then, \"The sun was white as though chidden of God,\" and I have chosen white and chidden there as those key words because they're giving us that impression that the sun is perhaps too bright.

It is harsh.

When we think of a pleasant landscape, we might think of a warm golden sun.

So this idea of it being white presents it as quite harsh.

And then that other word there, chidden, which means scolded or reprimanded or told off.

So the sun is white and harsh as though it's been told off by God.

So Hardy's not presenting us there with a very pleasant landscape, but perhaps one that is rather desolate.

And then in the other quote that we had there for the first stanza, \"starving sod.\" So sod being another word for soil or earth.

And in this description, it's starving.

The natural landscape is not thriving.

It is not an abundant, pleasant, vivid, happy place.

It is starving, which is another word there that could link to that idea of it being desolate.

Okay, so over to stanza two then.

And we've got eyes and tedious riddles there as our key words.

Eyes obviously, because it relates to the partner's look, their eyes.

And then that description of tedious riddles, which presents the verbal conflict in this relationship.

And it's really interesting that Hardy has chosen to use this description because tedious is a word that means boring.

And riddles are obviously rhymes or short questions perhaps that have really difficult for us to work out the answer to.

So here we're getting that idea that the speaker feels that the verbal conflict in the relationship was something that was boring and perhaps repetitive.

It happened over and over again, but also something that perhaps the speaker didn't quite fully understand.

Okay, moving on to stanza three then.

So the keywords we have here are the \"smile\", which is linking to that idea of the partner's smile, and \"the deadest thing\".

Usually deadest is not a word we would perhaps use to describe a smile.

I don't know about you, but if you think of someone you know perhaps, if you could imagine their face when somebody smiles, their face lights up.

It's often been said that people don't just smile with their mouth, they smile with their eyes, because a smile can really change someone's expression.

So the idea here that the speaker's partner's smile is the deadest thing suggests that perhaps they might be smiling with their mouth, but it isn't lighting up their face.

They are not smiling with their eyes.

Perhaps this smile isn't genuine.

And then onto the last stanza.

So we had this quote, \"wings with wrong, have shaped to me.\" So here our speaker is talking about how these negative experiences, the negative experience at the end of this relationship has actually shaped their feelings about love in general.

And they go on to elaborate on what these experiences were.

So \"your face, and the God curst sun, and a tree, and a pond.\" So we know that they are specifically referring to this experience walking around the pond and the look and the smile that their partner gave to them.

So we are now onto the final part of the lesson.

So well done.

You have been working very hard today and you should be proud of what you've achieved so far.

So for this last section, we are going to consider how Hardy uses form and structure.

So now we've tracked the events of the poem.

Let's start by looking at how Hardy uses structure.

So when it comes to structure in \"Neutral Tones\", there are three important things to remember.

And that is how Hardy's using time, stanzas, and how he structured the poem in general.

So let's look at each of these things in a bit more detail.

Let's start by thinking about Hardy's use of time.

Stanzas one to three are set in the past, in the speaker's past, yet stanza four jumps forward to the speaker's present.

So what could this suggest about our speaker's feelings here? Well, it suggests that this is a memory that still plays on the speaker's mind.

So now let's think about the stanzas of the poem.

Well, the last line of each stanza is indented, and this creates a pause and it slows the pace because as we're scanning our eyes across the poem, we obviously hit that blank space, which indicates a pause.

And this slow pace helps to create that melancholic feel, that sad, emotive tone.

And then last of all, structure.

So if we think to ourself about what Hardy chooses to focus on in each part of the poem, we begin to see a pattern.

So we see the image of the pond appearing at the beginning and at the end of the poem.

So in stanza one, Hardy gives us this description of the pond, the trees, and the sun.

And then in the very last stanza, he returns to that same description again, in the last few lines listed out these same features of that landscape, the pond, the tree, and the sun.

So this is what's known as a circular structure or a cyclical structure, because where we've started in those descriptions of the pond, we've come full circle and ended up in that same place.

And the use of this circular structure suggests that the pain of this memory is never ending for our speaker.

It's something that he goes over and over and over in his mind.

So now we've had a chance to explore Hardy's use of structure, let's pause for a second and check our understanding.

So select the correct answer to complete this sentence.

Pause the video here while you have a think and then click play when you are ready to reveal the answer.

Well done to those of you who identified it was indentation.

So now let's move on to how Hardy uses form.

And there are two important things to remember here, and they are regularity and rhyme scheme.

So let's have a look first at regularity.

So the poem has irregular shape, which means it's organised into four quatrain stanzas.

And that word quatrain is one of the keywords from our lesson, and it means a four-line stanza.

However, it has an irregular rhythm because lots of the lines are different lengths.

We have longer lines and we have shorter lines.

And what's significant about that? Well, the poem is regular to look at.

So if we look at it on the page, it looks neat and ordered into these equal sections.

However, there are irregularities underneath.

And this could mirror or symbolise the couple's relationship because perhaps to the passerby, they look like they have a regular relationship.

They're a couple walking around a pond.

However, as we discover when we read the poem, there are these irregularities underneath.

Their relationship is not as romantic as we might have first thought.

So now let's look at Hardy's use of a rhyme scheme, and a rhyme scheme is the order of rhyming lines.

So the order of the lines where that last sound at the end of the line has the same sound as other ones in that stanza.

So in this poem, Hardy uses an ABBA rhyme scheme, which means that each stanza consists of two rhyming pairs.

Lines one and four rhyme, and lines two and three rhyme.

So much like Hardy's use of structure, we are seeing that circular pattern again.

Each stanza begins and ends with that same sound.

And another thing that's important to know about Hardy's use of rhyme here is that it adds pauses.

Anytime that we have a rhyme in poem, we know which line we need to end on because it sounds like the one before it, and it actually affects the way that we read this.

And the reason why that is a really effective technique is because it adds emphasis to certain words.

So whichever words our poet is chosen to put at the end of the line always have that pause after them.

So we always have that moment of emphasis on that word where we have that pause to consider its meaning.

And obviously as before, adding in all those pauses helps to slow the pace of the poem.

So let's check our understanding again.

So select the correct answer to complete this sentence.

Perhaps pause the video and have a look at one of the stanzas on the poem to check.

And then when you think you've selected the right answer, click play and I'll reveal the correct answer.

Well done to those of you that said B.

It's an ABBA rhyme scheme.

Okay, onto our final practise task of the lesson.

So I'd like you to bring together everything that we've just explored about Hardy's use of form and structure, and I would like you to write an analytical paragraph answering the following question.

How does Hardy use form and structure to convey the speaker's feelings about the relationship? And I'd like you to challenge yourself to include everything on the checklist.

Pause the video here and give this a really good go.

Take as much time as you need to produce a really detailed paragraph that includes everything on that list.

When you think you're finished and you are ready to feedback your responses, then click play and we'll go through it.

Okay, welcome back.

So I'd like to feedback Alex's response to this question.

And as we are reading through this response, I'd like you to think about whether or not he has included everything on that checklist.

So he says, \"The beginning of the poem has a depressing feel.

For example, the description, 'We stood by a pond that winter day, they had fallen from ash, and were grey,' could show how this memory plays over and over in the speaker's mind.

It is sad and lifeless when read aloud.

This is characteristic of Hardy's poetry and could be read as a semi-autobiographical reflection on his first marriage which was unhappy.\" So let's start by looking there at the beginning.

The poem has a depressing feel.

So this is an example of Alex using an inference, and he has another one a little bit later on.

He has also used a quote.

\"We stood by a pond that winter day.

They had fallen from ash and grey.\" And that final sentence there at the end is a link to context because Alex is talking about the characteristics of Hardy's poetry and then linking to what we know about his life.

So Alex was able to include three things from that checklist.

However, he hasn't remembered to link to the poet's use of methods or techniques, which has made it tricky for him to justify his ideas.

So how could he improve this answer? Now, Alex has had a chance to redraft.

He's included everything on that checklist.

So let's read through this new and improved version of Alex's response.

\"Hardy uses an ABBA rhyme scheme to create a melancholic tone in the poem.

This means that every stanza starts and ends with rhyming lines such as stanza one.

'We stood by a pond that winter day.

They had fallen from ash, and were grey.

' This circular rhyming pattern could symbolise how this memory plays over and over in the speaker's mind.

It also slows the pace of the poem since it forces the reader to pause on particular words, creating a sad, lifeless tone when read aloud.

This pessimistic tone is characteristic of Hardy's poetry and could be read as a semi-autobiographical reflection on his first marriage, which was unhappy.\" So take some time to compare your answer to Alex's.

Have you included everything from the checklist? Perhaps tick off or annotate where you've met each of the things there on that checklist.

And if you need to, redraft your answer to add in anything that you've missed.

Pause the video here while you check through your response and perhaps redraft.

And then when you're ready to continue, click play.

Okay, well done.

We have made it to the end of the lesson.

So let's just summarise what we've covered today.

Hardy's poem is characterised by a pessimistic, hopeless tone.

It has been argued that this is a response to an unhappy first marriage and/or his frustration about the impact of the Industrial Revolution on the British countryside.

The poem focuses on the speaker's memories of the day they knew their relationship was ending.

The end of the poem shifts to the present to suggest this memory plays on their mind.

And Hardy uses an ABBA rhyme scheme and indentation to slow the pace of the poem and create a melancholic feel.

So thank you very much for joining me today, and I hope to see you again soon.

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