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Neutral Tones
Thomas Hardy 1840 (Stinsford) – 1928 (Dorchester, Dorset)
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 solved 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.
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Citation
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"Neutral Tones" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2021. Web. 3 Mar. 2021. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/36438/neutral-tones>.