In both Modern Love’ and Neutral Tones,’ George Meredith presents the breakdown in a relationship through many different perspectives. In both poems, themes like loss and memory are explored. This essay will explore and compare both poems.
In the first stanzas, the poem focuses on a memory where the couple is standing next to a pond. The last stanza is a reflection on what once was and how powerful that memory still is. As an example, “Since then, sharp lessons on love’s deception” This quote from the final stanza suggests that time has passed and all the information the reader had read until that point in the poem is no longer relevant. The fact that he is reflecting back on the relationship shows how it has affected him over the years.
The poem ‘Neutral Tone’ is set in winter, when natural life is not moving forward. Hardy used various aspects of nature to communicate his views on relationships and marriage. He used images of ponds, but this poem shows that the pond is motionless, implying the relationship will not move forward. In this poem, Hardy uses the image of a pond, but it has no movement, suggesting that there is nothing happening in the relationship. As the relationship decays, the leaves are also grey, as if the color is gone. This would be the poet’s intent. The ash is a symbol for death. The reader may be reminded of Hardy’s relationship. Hardy looks like he has been in a relationship with someone who has died ages ago.
The poem, Modern Love, explores themes such as depression and suffering. Although neither partner wants to remain in their marriage, they both feel that getting a divorce is worse due to the social environment they were in. Victorians frowned on divorce because it was viewed by many as breaking God’s will. They believed that marriages were a sacred sacrament. This first line could be interpreted as a breakdown in the marriage. It could mean the husband is aware of his wife’s sadness and pain. The wife in the second stanza is described as ‘dreadfully vicious’. This can be taken to mean that the marriage is intoxicated and toxic because the couple is not good for one another and don’t bring the best out of each other.
The rhythmic pattern in the poem “Neutral Tone” is inconsistent, which can emphasize the discomfort of the relationship. The fourth and final stanzas are different from the rest of the stanzas because they are the last ones. They also represent a distant, forgotten memory. The third sentence is broken into two lines, which suggests that the poet has struggled to express his pained memory in a way that was neutral. The poem was also written using quatrains. This grouping is simple and straightforward, as well as being one of most easily recognized. Thomas Hardy might have chosen the simplest grouping to show how plain and simple his relationship is.
Meredith’s ‘Modern Love” is one of the longest poems he has written. The sonnet is sixteen lines long, as opposed the the fourteen-line sonnets. The poem’s structure allows for both the exchange of contradictory and sometimes interconnected emotions between the two. This 16-line poem instead of a 14-line sonnet may have been written to emphasize the difficult marriage that the couple experienced compared to traditional marriages where both partners are happy. The couple is trying to maintain the illusion of a modern love marriage by living in private agony to avoid upsetting society. Meredith depicts’modern-love’ as a painful and empty commitment that society will review, regardless of the feelings felt behind closed door. Modern love has always been seen as a way to achieve social stability, rather than expressing feelings or expressing themselves.
The final meaning of both poems is that you cannot get away from heartbreak unless you live your marriage for yourself and only you, not what society expects. The poem ‘Neutral Tone’ in particular shows that relationships aren’t as colorful and bright as they’re made out to appear, but rather are grey and washed-out. The poet’s experiences could have influenced the poem.
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