No Roads-Analysis
Philip Larkin is one link of the long chain of English poets and novelists of the twentieth century. His first mature collection of poetry which was privately printed was “The Less Deceived” that first appeared in 1955 and was recognized as one of the outstanding collections of the year. Throughout the whole collection the theme of loss and diminishment is pervasive. And the poem “No Road” is not an exception either.
In his poems of this series Larkin invents stanza forms of intricate patterns that become one with the content of the poem. His rigorous adherence to these patterns brings the sadness into sharp relief and gives the emotions their authority.
The poem “No Road” is divided into three stanzas each of which has its own idea and theme, but on the whole they make the poem be integral. The first part of the poem tells us about the end of some relationships which still have the influence, which still are alive. The lyrical hero says, that no matter how he and his beloved have tried to forget everything what they had together (“to let the road between us/ Fall to disuse”, “bricked our gates up, planted trees to screen us”, “turned all time’s eroding agents loose”), they could not do that (“our neglect/ Has not had much effect”). The feelings of the main character are emphasized by some stylistic devices: the periphrasis “all time’s eroding agents” proves that there are so many things which can help people to forget each other, but right after this phrase the alliteration “Silence, and space, and strangers” opens the meaning of the periphrasis and leads to the idea of the whole verse: even these phenomena failed to make the couple forget about their love.
The second stanza keeps on capturing very precisely the way that even after a really deep relationship ends, one has the feeling that one could just turn it on again. And here the lyrical hero gives the information that practically everything after their break-up remains unchanged, and only “leaves drift
In his poems of this series Larkin invents stanza forms of intricate patterns that become one with the content of the poem. His rigorous adherence to these patterns brings the sadness into sharp relief and gives the emotions their authority.
The poem “No Road” is divided into three stanzas each of which has its own idea and theme, but on the whole they make the poem be integral. The first part of the poem tells us about the end of some relationships which still have the influence, which still are alive. The lyrical hero says, that no matter how he and his beloved have tried to forget everything what they had together (“to let the road between us/ Fall to disuse”, “bricked our gates up, planted trees to screen us”, “turned all time’s eroding agents loose”), they could not do that (“our neglect/ Has not had much effect”). The feelings of the main character are emphasized by some stylistic devices: the periphrasis “all time’s eroding agents” proves that there are so many things which can help people to forget each other, but right after this phrase the alliteration “Silence, and space, and strangers” opens the meaning of the periphrasis and leads to the idea of the whole verse: even these phenomena failed to make the couple forget about their love.
The second stanza keeps on capturing very precisely the way that even after a really deep relationship ends, one has the feeling that one could just turn it on again. And here the lyrical hero gives the information that practically everything after their break-up remains unchanged, and only “leaves drift