Something without
warmth, cold and Without strong ‘White’ is associated with pale/unhappiness. The
emotion. It is the qualities ‘sun’ is drained of warmth and colour – reflects
Colour
opposite of colourful how the love has drained from their relationship
Neutral Tones Drained of colour To be scolded/criticized – the speaker imagines
Verb – lack of physical movement Pathetic fallacy – they are that God has scolded the sun. This adds to the
contributes to lifeless atmosphere emotionally cold towards each other bleak mood of the poem and hints that the
speaker sees everything in a negative way
Alliteration – We stood by a pond that winter day,
Alliteration/personification – emphasises the
emphasises And the sun was white, as though chidden of God,
impression of suffering – the lifeless ground
how the And a few leaves lay on the starving sod;
reflects their dying relationship
leaves are – They had fallen from an ash, and were grey.
still and Associated with death. This also links to ash from
Eyes are traditionally shown to be a positive
unmoving feature but they are shown as negative here a fire – their relationship has died/burnt out
To travel/wander – reflects the boredom the figure
She was once Your eyes on me were as eyes that rove feels as she is no longer interested
interested in Over tedious riddles of years ago;
Game imagery – love should be fun and played but
him And some words played between us to and fro
their but their relationship became ‘tedious’ and ‘lost’
On which lost the more by our love.
The figure chose to let her smile die – maybe she Juxtaposition – a smile is usually associated with joy – this
let the love between them die as well emphasises her complete lack of feelings towards him
The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing Simile – birds are associated with freedom – imagery of a
Alive enough to have strength to die; bird flying away, suggesting the end of the relationship
And a grin of bitterness swept thereby
Ellipsis – represents the time when the relationship came
Like an ominous bird a-wing…. to an end
Sharp/strong – these lessons have been painful Sense of betrayal – the speaker makes a distrustful
generalisation that all love is deceptive
Alliteration – Since then, keen lessons that love deceives,
emphasises And wrings with wrong, have shaped to me Other experiences of deceitful love remind him of
the speaker’s Your face, and the God curst sun, and a tree, this incident by the pond – perhaps it was the first
pain and time he has experienced it
And a pond edged with greyish leaves.
anguish The ‘t’ in ‘curst’ is a harsher sound than ‘chidden’ –
Circular structure – the poem begins and ends this hints that the speaker has become more bitter
by a pond – this shows that the memory of One tree – represents loneliness
that day still affects him
Thomas Hardy
warmth, cold and Without strong ‘White’ is associated with pale/unhappiness. The
emotion. It is the qualities ‘sun’ is drained of warmth and colour – reflects
Colour
opposite of colourful how the love has drained from their relationship
Neutral Tones Drained of colour To be scolded/criticized – the speaker imagines
Verb – lack of physical movement Pathetic fallacy – they are that God has scolded the sun. This adds to the
contributes to lifeless atmosphere emotionally cold towards each other bleak mood of the poem and hints that the
speaker sees everything in a negative way
Alliteration – We stood by a pond that winter day,
Alliteration/personification – emphasises the
emphasises And the sun was white, as though chidden of God,
impression of suffering – the lifeless ground
how the And a few leaves lay on the starving sod;
reflects their dying relationship
leaves are – They had fallen from an ash, and were grey.
still and Associated with death. This also links to ash from
Eyes are traditionally shown to be a positive
unmoving feature but they are shown as negative here a fire – their relationship has died/burnt out
To travel/wander – reflects the boredom the figure
She was once Your eyes on me were as eyes that rove feels as she is no longer interested
interested in Over tedious riddles of years ago;
Game imagery – love should be fun and played but
him And some words played between us to and fro
their but their relationship became ‘tedious’ and ‘lost’
On which lost the more by our love.
The figure chose to let her smile die – maybe she Juxtaposition – a smile is usually associated with joy – this
let the love between them die as well emphasises her complete lack of feelings towards him
The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing Simile – birds are associated with freedom – imagery of a
Alive enough to have strength to die; bird flying away, suggesting the end of the relationship
And a grin of bitterness swept thereby
Ellipsis – represents the time when the relationship came
Like an ominous bird a-wing…. to an end
Sharp/strong – these lessons have been painful Sense of betrayal – the speaker makes a distrustful
generalisation that all love is deceptive
Alliteration – Since then, keen lessons that love deceives,
emphasises And wrings with wrong, have shaped to me Other experiences of deceitful love remind him of
the speaker’s Your face, and the God curst sun, and a tree, this incident by the pond – perhaps it was the first
pain and time he has experienced it
And a pond edged with greyish leaves.
anguish The ‘t’ in ‘curst’ is a harsher sound than ‘chidden’ –
Circular structure – the poem begins and ends this hints that the speaker has become more bitter
by a pond – this shows that the memory of One tree – represents loneliness
that day still affects him
Thomas Hardy
