Neutral Tones
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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 gray.
Your eyes on me were as eyes that rove
Over tedious riddles of 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 wrings with wrong, have shaped to me
Your face, and the God curst sun, and a tree,
And a pond edged with grayish leaves.
I chose this poem because I liked the link to nature in the poem. In an un-obvious way, the poem compares love to nature. Their love was dead like nature is in winter. Their once, green, alive, colorful love had turned to dark, gray, dead nothingness. Winter is the end of the year, yet the beginning of new things to come, like the relationship between the two in the poem. Its a harsh reminder that all things die and nothing lasts forever. I like the honesty of it. Its not sugar coated and pathetic like most love poems.
"The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing
ReplyDeleteAlive enough to have strength to die;"
These two lines stood out to me because it gives the impression that the storyteller is very aware of the end results in life but the lover is prepared. It is interested you mentioned the change in color, that what once started vibrant began to fade and turn dark. It could represent how a relationship begins and ends, or maybe the cycle of life as it relates to human emotion.
I agree. So many people seem to forget that everything has an end, or they choose to forget it. Life's a little happier if you believe the good things don't go away. That's proof of the saying, "ignorance is bliss". I also like the symmetry between their relationship and the changing seasons. The metaphor helps explain the truth about relationships that so many people don't want to believe.
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