Both ‘Winter Swans’ (WS) and ‘Neutral Tones’ (NT) present damaged romantic relationships as difficult to overcome and upsetting using natural imagery and pathetic fallacy; however, Hardy describes his happiness in the relationship as short-lived and continues in monotonous depression, and Sheers describes true love and feelings that can overcome conflict that wasn't overcome in neutral tones. In "NT," Hardy employs natural imagery of a pond in the poem's opening to symbolize his feelings of entrapment and difficulty in moving on since the relationship has ended. The poem begins with the line: “We stood by a pond that winter day.” The noun “pond” suggests a sense of confinement, as the pond (a circular body of water) can be seen to symbolise Hardy’s feelings of being trapped within the memory of their relationship ending. Additionally, the past tense verb “stood” indicates that this moment remains vivid in his memory, highlighting the significance of the relationship despite the damage it has endured. This line may alternatively represent when the progression of their relationship stopped and "stood" still. The stillness of the pond (a small, motionless body of water) emphasises how the relationship has become stagnant. Hardy also presents his damaged relationship through pathetic fallacy, describing the “Winter's Day”; the use of “Winter” reflects the Woman’s coldness and lack of desire and love in their relationship. Passing on the blame away from him and onto his partner, who remains voiceless throughout the poem, alluding to a sense of deflection, almost foreshadowing the relationship’s eventual break. Similarly to this, Sheers uses imagery of a lake and metaphorical language to present the difficulties within the relationship; however, unlike NT, also uses bird imagery to show how true love can overcome their conflict. Sheers opens the poem with the line “the clouds have given their all”, immediately using natural imagery, possibly to allude to that nature is pulling the two lovers apart and is “giving their all” to separate them. This immediately gives the poem an accusatory tone, deflecting the fault and blame away from himself, like NT, where the repetition of the second-person pronouns “you” and “your” points the direction of blame to the woman, who remains voiceless throughout the poem. However, the volta in stanza 3, which begins with “until the Swans came and stopped us”, which creates a shift in this tone to a more loving one. The poem closes with a couplet, unlike the tercets which have been used throughout, symbolising their reconciliation. This is further exemplified in the line “but somehow our hands had swum the distance between us”, by comparing their hands to the Swans, Sheers now uses nature to symbolise their eventual coming together and reuniting rather than to symbolise their damaged relationship. Sheers may have done this to symbolise his now grown emotional maturity and love's ability to overcome conflict and damage. This contrasts with NT, where Hardy uses cyclical structure to enforce his never-ending feelings of entrapment as their conflict never comes to a satisfying close.