Compare How Poets Present Attitudes Towards the Loss of Romantic Love in ‘neutral Tones’ and ‘when We Two Parted’

Compare how poets present attitudes towards the loss of romantic love in ‘Neutral tones’ and ‘When we two parted’

Both Hardy and Byron present the loss of romantic love as painful created by the semantic field of sorrow created by the words ‘gray’, ‘tears’, ‘cold’, ‘fallen’ and ‘silence’. In when we two parted Byron presents the loss of romantic love as shocking and unclear. The ambiguity of the phrase ‘half broken-hearted’ suggests how the relationship wasn’t equal or loving. Additionally, it can imply how only one person was heart-broken or maybe how they were both only partially broken-hearted insinuating that their love was built upon inferences as the poem is all about silence, he grieves in silence, they will meet in silence and parted their ways in silence. This could suggest that their loss in romantic love was so metaphorically silent that they didn’t notice when they began to romantically lose interest in each other. Furthermore, the accentual verses used by Byron stops after line 5 and 7 which could represent his shock after realising his lover no longer loves him which he realises when he says ‘colder thy kiss’. The juxtaposition suggests how something that is supposed to be loving and caring has turned so cold and wicked which is presented by the adjective ‘cold’ which connotes unwelcoming, unsympathetic and forbidding whereas the noun ‘love’ connotes warmth, intimacy and endearment. Similarly, the feeling of pain is presented by Hardy in the first line of the first stanza where he looks back at the past as him and his ex-lover ‘stood by a pond’. The visual picture in his mind conjures sad memories which is portrayed through the pathetic fallacy of the ‘winter day’ suggesting that this poem is about the end of relationship. The noun ‘winter’ connotes ‘cold’ and ‘harsh’ insinuating that the relationship ended on a bad note. Hardy describes the sun as ‘white’ which connotes cold and colourless which opposes the original duty of the sun which is commonly thought as a radiant yellow, symbolising happiness and life. Here the sun is bleached of all colour suggesting how the most beautiful things, like love, can turn bitter and cold. The semantic field of pain is created by the words ‘fallen’ and ‘starving’ which insinuates their dying love. hardy tells of how the leaves had fallen from an ash tree ‘they had fallen from an ash’. Ash trees are beautiful, tall tress which brings life to beautiful flowers such as lilacs however the facts that the leaves are described as grey could suggest the trees lack of growth which could metaphorically represent their awkward relationship. The noun ‘ash’ denotes the ‘the powdery residue left after the burning of a substance.’ This indicates the presence of a fire before it burned out; indicative of the passion that died out between the two lovers.