No Road Flashcards
What does Larkin use?
Extended metaphor
Of a ‘road’ or absence of, to explore the ending of a relationship w/ a partner, and the implications that come w/ separation.
“Us fall to disuse”
Enjambment to manifest the separation between him and his partner.
“And bricked our gates up, planted trees to screen us, and turned all time’s eroding agents loose”
The 3 part listing highlights the active measures that the couple have taken to force this break.
Time is personified as a slowly destructive and undeniable force. Contrary to steps taken, it is time that’ll triumph the separation.
‘unswept’ / ‘unmown’ / ‘overgrown’
Hardy-esque prefix - ‘unswept’ / ‘unmown’ / ‘overgrown’
A sense of stasis to suggest a lack of action which might have otherwise taken place to nurture relationship.
Juxtapose
‘unswept’ / ‘unmown’ / ‘overgrown’
Final stanza focuses on absence of action vs previous, which shows active measures
‘So clear IT stands’
The speaker suggests that perhaps separation hasn’t been enforced as ‘it’ (the road) still ‘stands’, a path which ‘allows’ the speaker to ‘walk’ to his past relationship.
He even might be somewhat drawn to the clear when he seemingly reassures himself that ‘in time’, he’ll feel ‘stronger’.
What do the sestets running throughout show?
The sestets running throughout - consistent stanza length could represent the speakers steady journey from relationship to solitude or, perhaps more cynically, the speakers certainty that relationships always inevitably end.
‘From you to me’
Switch to singular pronouns highlight the increasing divide as poem reaches its conclusion.
‘Fulfilment’ / ‘ailment’
Syntax becomes tangled.
Embarrassment intensifies.
Awkward unsatisfactory half rhyme.
A life of solicitude easier, compared t complications of intimacy.
Final Stanza Rhyme Scheme
ABABCC
Narrator imagines a world without his lover as being ‘like a cold sun’ - something that once brought light and warmth now appears redundant and alien.
AO3: 1951 - Called off engagement to Ruth Bowman. (‘Time soils, erodes and disappoints.’)
More AO3
- Larkin describes Hardy as an influence: “his subjects are men, the life of men, and the passing of time, love and the fading of love.”
- “No Road” exemplifies Larkin’s ‘more vernacular style’, inspired by proverbs or everyday expressions.
- The poem’s tone is conversational, but the syntax becomes tangled with the poet’s increasing guilt and embarrassment.
- A strained infinitive construction reveals Larkin telling his former lover it is his liberty to watch “a world where no such road will run // from you to me” as it rises “like a cold sun.”
- The final lopsided couplet stammers with a Hardyesque awkwardness.
