In “Neutral Tones,” the speaker relays a description of a winter’s day on which they had a moment with a lover. Looking back “since then” (Line 13), the speaker realizes that the moment and location were symbolic of the lover’s betrayal and the death of their relationship. Their passion was reduced to “neutral tones” as the beloved’s feelings for them changed to something devoid of warmth.

The poem begins with the speaker describing the “winter day” (Line 1) on which the lovers met. A conversation took place between them “by a pond” (Line 1). As the two stood there, there was no physical contact between them. The winter “sun was white” (Line 2), and “[a] few leaves lay” (Line 3) after having “fallen from an ash” (Line 4). However, the speaker loads these images with an emotional register that shows how the speaker suspected that the relationship was doomed. The life-giving sun was bleached as if “chidden of God” (Line 2), suggesting the removal of any blessing from the divine. The mention of dropped “leaves […] on the starving sod” (Line 3) shows how the cold ground offered no sustenance or hope of revival. The labeling of the tree as an “ash” (Line 4), while obviously clarifying its type, also implies something once alive that has been incinerated.