A* unseen poetry A Level English Literature response- 'Adlestrop'
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Course
A2 Unit 3 - Poetry Pre-1900 and Unseen Poetry
Institution
WJEC
An A* essay response to the unseen poetry 'Adlestrop' for A Level English Literature. Perfect example of how to get top marks on this component of the exam.
Thomas’ poem ‘Adlestrop’ is an intimate and personal insight into a transportive experience,
which shifts between the ordinary to a spiritual sense of a connection with the wider world. The
experience is guided by a first-person narrator who acts as a force of motion in the poem,
directing the readers between details and the wider picture. The poem opens with the short,
punctuated first line “Yes. I remember Adlestrop-”. The use of caesura just after the place name
“Adlestrop” indicates that the name acts as a trigger for memory for the speaker, whilst the
caesura itself reflects the stilted process of bringing back memories and thought, which becomes
smoother as the narrator recalls more memories. “Adlestrop” is repeated throughout, suggesting
that despite its unassuming name, which indicates that it is an ordinary rural village of little
significance (“bare platform,”) “Adlestrop” has greater importance to the speaker, acting as both
a point of recollection, and a wider symbolic image of the culture of Britain (“Oxfordshire and
Gloucestershire.” The first two stanzas of the poem are disjointed by caesura, and reflect the
immediate vision of the speaker, which includes the “heat” of the “express-train,” and banal
comments such as “someone cleared his throat.” The use of short sentences highlights the quiet
in the train carriage, and the punctuating physical noise of the sentences themselves signify the
breaks in silence caused by things such as “the steam hissed.” The use of onomatopoeia in this
phrase seems to foreshadow the transportive nature of the experience as it will later occur, as it
involves the senses of both the speaker and the reader. Additionally, the enjambment of “drew
up there” “Unwontedly,” combined with caesura and short sharp sentences (“It was late June”),
mirrors the juddering pace of the train as it comes to a stop in “Adlestrop.” The enjambment
draws attention to the adjective “unwontedly,” creating a sense that the unexpected nature of
the stop in “Adlestrop” is what makes it more significant to the speaker, as an ordinary journey
becomes transformed into something of a spiritual experience.
There is a notable shift in the poem halfway through, triggered by “the name” that is
“Adlestrop.” The poem shifts from one punctuated by caesura, to the listing of “willows, willow-
herb, and grass, and meadowsweet, and haycocks dry,” which shows both a break into memory,
and shift in focus to the middle vision of the speaker. The use of common plants that are staples
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