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Neutral Tones1. Absence of colour ‘sun was white’ & ‘had fallen from an ash, and were gray’Contributes to bleak atmosphere (as though colour leached from world) and alleged neutrality2. NeutralityTitle claims that the discussion of the relationship will be neutral, when in fact multiple emotional outbursts are seen & whole poem is tainted with negativity‘as though chidden of god’, ‘the god-curst son’, etc.3.4.5.6.7.8.9.10.11.12.I Look Into My Glass1. Repetition of ‘my’ in first stanza ‘my glass’, ‘my wasting skin’, ‘my heart’Focus on self & self-reflection2. Slow paceGenerated by great deal of punctuationSlow pace thoughtful, reflective, even plodding?3.4.5.6.7.8.9.10.11.12.Drummer Hodge1. Gradually increasing personalisation of Hodge‘Drummer Hodge’ ‘Young Hodge the Drummer’ just ‘Hodge’First defined by position, but increasingly tragic as Hodge is humanised2. Carelessness with which corpse is treated‘throw’, ‘to rest’ vs. ‘uncoffined – just as found’Casualness with which human life is treated during war, undervalued, lack of respect3.4.5.6.7.8.9.10.11.12. The Darkling Thrush1. Funereal imagery in first half‘corpse outleant’, ‘crypt’, ‘death lament’Sense that new century is not a new beginning but rather death of old century, terminal, disheartening2. Musical imageryHymn-like metre of the poem, ‘scored the sky’ (both cut/musical scores), ‘broken lyres’, ‘death-lament’, ‘full-hearted evensong’Contrast between earlier funeral song and later evensong, foreshadows the coming of the bird’s song, importance of aural imagery against visual bleakness3.4.5.6.7.8.9.10.11.12. On the Departure Platform1. Negativity of physical environment‘lamplight’s fitful glowers’, ‘dark groups’Light is flickering & inconsistent (deprives him of his image of her periodically), glowers (glares- actively angry), crowd is not people but opposing negative force2. Depersonalisation of lover‘but a spot’, ‘wee white spot of muslin fluff’, ‘that flexible form, that nebulous white’Though she is only leaving on a train, there is a sense that she ceases to be a real human to the speaker from the moment they part3.4.5.6.7.8.9.10.11.12.The Pine Planters1. Sighing‘shall I not sigh to him’ & ‘it starts a sighing’Establishes link – emotionally & metaphorically – between Marty & trees described in part II2. Plosive language to emphasise harsh weather‘blast and breeze’Shows how Marty suffers, which later emphasises Giles’ obliviousness3.4.5.6.7.8.9.10.11.12.The Convergence of the Twain1. Contrast between opulence of ship and world at bottom of ocean‘lie lightless, all their sparkles bleared black and blind’, Stanza IIIDemonstrates futility/arrogance of the now wasted conspicuous glamour2. References to ship & iceberg as mates or lovers‘grew the Iceberg too’, ‘Prepared a sinister mate’, ‘intimate welding’, ‘consummation comes’At times verges almost on the sexual, suggests they were fated to be together, emphasising inevitability of the collision and arguable romanticising the tragedy3.4.5.6.7.8.9.10.11.12.The Going1. Questions that are really exclamations (stanzas 1 & 3)Does he really want an answer, or to cast blame? Accusatory toward the deceased/uncertainty of speaker2. Enjambment throughoutEmotional outpouring (response to a sudden death), almost stream-of-consciousness3.4.5.6.7.8.9.10.11.12.The Voice1. Dactyls, alternating full & truncated linesHypnotic & rocking (obsession, intensity of emotion), falling rhythm as though yearningBroken in final stanzaDactyls place stress on most important words2. Use of questions‘Can it be you that I hear?’, all of stanza 3Doubt as to identity of the voice begins to set in3.4.5.6.7.8.9.10.11.12.At the Word “Farewell”1. Language suggesting destiny/fate“That a Plan of the past/Which had ruled us from birthtime”, “fortune might weave”, “bound to obey”Suggestion that it was a compulsion, destined to be together, possibly ominous (foreshadowing death?), certainly stresses speaker’s lack of control2. Language of death“parting meal”, “ghostly”Parting is literally last day before leaving, but sense of the departed, and “ghostly” contributes to both sense of supernatural and foreshadowing of her death3.4.5.6.7.8.9.10.11.12.During Wind and Rain1. Repetition within structureEach middle line rhymes within each stanza, first and last word of stanza rhymes, ballad-like refrainIncreases sense of whole poem as a ballad (title references Twelfth Night song), universal quality, sense of something cyclical2. Innocence of first stanza“dearest songs” “candles mooning each face” (like halos)Naivety, counterpoint to destructive force of time that comes in with the refrain3.4.5.6.7.8.9.10.11.12.In Time of “The Breaking of Nations”1. Biblical reference in titleJeremiah 51:20Link to war that is poem’s tacit subject, sense of grandeur and permanence2. Words with dual meanings – farming & war“harrowing”, “stalk”, “smoke without flame”Reminder of the brutality war even within deliberately ignoring it in favour of discussing pastoral life3.4.5.6.7.8.9.10.11.12.No Buyers: A Street Scene1. Polysyndeton“A load of brushes and baskets and chairs”Clunkiness, sense of being overladen, overemphasises burden2. Irony of musical imagery“to a dirge-like tune”, “in a drum major’s way when the bandsmen march and play”Shows the misery of their lifestyle by virtue of contrast - a dirge and a swinging cleaning-brush are the closest they come to energy & music3.4.5.6.7.8.9.10.11.12.Nobody Comes1. Sense of natural world having to work, losing energy“labour up and down”, “fainting light”, “succumbs”Bleak outlook, contrasts with energy and force of the car making it almost seem like the natural world is dying2. Sinister aural imagery“Intones to travellers like a spectral lyre swept by a spectral hand”Taking an ordinary sound (wind in telephone wires) and making it into something ghostly, ethereal, possible even seeming to entice like sirens3.4.5.6.7.8.9.10.11.12. ................
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