Thorough analysis and summary of Larkin's poem 'No Road', produced by all A* achieving student at A level.
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Course
Unit 3 - Poetry
Institution
PEARSON (PEARSON)
This is a 2 page document that acts as a thorough essay plan and revision resource, produced by a student who achieved all A* at A level. It is split into an analysis of the poem itself, context, form, structure, language and ideas. (Hence touching upon all A0s assessed in the A level poetry exam.)
The title already introduces the reader
to the gloomy atmosphere prevailing
in the poem. Hopelessness and lack of
choice/future perhaps.
No Road
This poem is about the attempted dissolution of a strong relationship between the speaker and his
ex-lover, who is the intended listener of this piece. An extended metaphor of a road is used to stand
for the bond that used to connect the lovers, but now they intend to forget this connection, though
it becomes clear that this will be harder than the speaker anticipated. This poem is essentially about
the eternal human conflict between rational and emotion.
Different themes:
Relationships.
Time.
Suffering.
Regret.
Key poems to link to and why:
Places, Loved ones- comparison to relationships as locations.
Contextual links:
A lot of Larkin’s poems are about suffering, and here in particular about the suffering that
relationships bring. Could explain Larkin’s lack of commitment in his own relationships- he
may have feared the heartbreak.
Key aspects of form and structure:
The stanzas follow a consistent rhyme scheme, but the metrical arrangement of the lines is
quite scattered. To some extent, the poem is disjointed and unbalanced, but the consistency
of the rhyme scheme mirrors the way in which the speaker is finding it hard to let go, and
this sense of partnership.
Sense of the speaker’s mixed emotions.
Reader stays on edge, never falling too securely into one particular pattern.
Key methods and arguments of poem:
Extended metaphor of a road is used to resemble the relationship and the process by which they
attempt to forget and move on. The speaker lists how they have attempted to cut off their
relationship as if it were a road….
‘bricked out gates up’- subverting use of a gate, which is usually used for entrance. This is an
image of deterioration, standing for the shutting down of any possibilities of communication.
Whenever entrances are sealed, it means that there is no hope for recovery. Bricking up
doors is the final action when a building is being closed down permanently.
‘planted trees to screen us’- avoidance and distraction. This is an image of the creation of a
natural barrier between the former lovers
‘turned all time’s eroding agents loose’- as if the relationship can naturally be worn down
like a road. Want their relationship to almost turn into a wild landscape, where time can
‘erode’ anything left standing.
‘silence, and space, and strangers’- list of three used to represent the loss of closeness
between the two. Sibilance and alliteration slows down the pace here and reiterates the
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