Dannie Abse - 'Not Adlestrop', Lecture notes of Literature

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Dannie Abse

'Not

Adlestrop'

(pages 314–5 of Poetry 1900–2000 )

A H E L P - S H E E T F O R T E A C H E R S

CONTENTS

SECTION 1:

BIOGRAPHY OF THE POET / CONTEXTS

SECTION 2:

LINE-BY-LINE COMMENTS ON THE POEM

SECTION 3:

COMMENTS ON THE POEM AS A WHOLE

SECTION 4:

FOUR QUESTIONS STUDENTS MIGHT ASK

SECTION 5:

PHOTOGRAPHS

SECTION 6:

LINKS TO USEFUL WEB RESOURCES

3

4

9

10

11

12

LINE-BY-LINE COMMENTS ON THE POEM

Title. The title of the poem, ‘Not Adlestrop’ , draws on a well-known poem by another Welsh poet, Edward Thomas. Thomas’s poem, published in 1917, was entitled ‘Adlestrop’ and describes a train journey he took in 1914. The journey itself was unremarkable, but Thomas uses the poem to depict a moment of peace as the train makes an unscheduled stop at Adlestrop station in Gloucestershire where he sits quietly and listens to the birds singing and enjoys being in the moment. The title of Abse’s poem therefore refers directly to Thomas’s poem. Joseph Cohen has described Abse’s poem as ‘a sort of curious conversation’ with Thomas’s poem because of the way it responds to, and differs from, Thomas’s work (1).

Form. The first line of the second and fourth stanzas is indented, a subtle adjustment which has two main effects. Visually, the indentation draws the reader’s eye and pulls their attention towards these sections of the poem. Thematically, the indentation keeps the poem moving forward, reminding the reader that time is passing and the train is moving. Like the train, the poem is moving on and the indented lines draw us back into the middle of the scene at the station, allowing the events to unfold seamlessly across all four stanzas. The form of ‘Not Adlestrop’ differs slightly from that of Edward Thomas’s ‘Adlestrop’, which is made up of four stanzas each of four lines in length. Thomas’s poem has a very balanced feel that is in contrast to the changeable format of Abse’s poem. While ‘Adlestrop’ has a perfectly-balanced structure which matches its presentation of a moment of unspoilt peace and tranquillity, the structure of ‘Not Adlestrop’ is more haphazard, with stanzas of unequal length reflecting the excitement and intensity of the fleeting encounter the poem depicts.

Lines 1 - 6. The poem opens with a negative, the assertion that this is not Adlestrop (line 1), a claim which simultaneously links this poem to Edward Thomas’s ‘Adlestrop’ and seeks to distance itself from the idyllic rural image presented by Thomas’s poem. This opening sets the tone for the rest of the poem, which often places emphasis on what is not happening and on what is not being said. The poet builds on this approach by setting a scene in which things are not quite as they should be; the speaker has arrived ‘too early’ (line 3) and finds himself on a deserted platform, and the train which arrives at the station is ‘the wrong train’ (line 4).

(1) Joseph Cohen, The Poetry of Dannie Abse: Critical Essays and Reminiscences (London: Robson Books, 1983), p. 40.

LINE-BY-LINE COMMENTS ON THE POEM

Lines 1 - 6 (continued). The fact that this train is described as being ‘surprised’ (line 4) indicates that something unexpected is happening and foreshadows the speaker’s own surprise at the way he is instinctively drawn towards the girl he sees looking out through the train window as the poem unfolds. This first stanza is crucial to establishing the balance of power between the speaker and the girl on the train. The speaker is positioned on the platform, with the train window acting as a barrier between him and the girl who has caught his attention. The repetition of the word ‘very’ (line 6) emphasises, somewhat childishly, the way in which the speaker is immediately attracted to the girl and is not afraid to admit to this attraction. This openness from the speaker continues in the stanzas that follow, as he goes on to describe how strongly he is drawn to this stranger.

Lines 7 - 11. This stanza is comprised of a single sentence, which seems to lend the poem a breathless nature, perhaps reflecting the speaker’s excitement at this unexpected encounter and the speed at which the meeting occurs. The speaker describes himself as being ‘all instinct’ (line 7), effectively absolving himself of responsibility for his actions by reducing them to an instinctive response to the beauty of the girl he sees through the train window. The revelation that the speaker is married adds another layer to the encounter, lending his open admiration of this stranger an illicit tone. Non-verbal communication is crucial in these lines as the speaker describes the way he ‘stared’ (line 8) at the girl, while the slightest of movements from her as she ‘inclined her head away’ (line 8) becomes a point of focus for the speaker. However fleeting this meeting may be, it appears that both parties are aware of its significance. The way the girl attempts to turn away from the speaker suggests that she is aware of his gaze and is uncomfortable with it, perhaps sensing the speaker’s apparent intensity. There is a sense of ambiguity here; the speaker interprets the girl’s response as a reaction to the realisation that he is married, but gives no indication of why he believes the girl may have been able to recognise his status as a married man from her position on the train. Like the speaker, the girl’s reaction is ‘all instinct’ (line 8), a shared response which links the two together even at this early stage of the poem. The gaze, however, is one-way – the man gazes and the woman (knowing she is watched) looks away.

Lines 12 - 15. The focus returns initially to the speaker who remains in his position on the platform. We learn that in spite of his awareness of the girl attempting to turn her head away from him, he continues his ‘scrutiny with unmitigated pleasure’ (line 13).

LINE-BY-LINE COMMENTS ON THE POEM

Lines 16 - 22 (continued). The fact that he describes them both in this way reflects the sudden moment of unity between them as they finally exchange smiles, briefly finding them in sync. They mirror each other here, with the speaker waving ‘back at her waving’ (line 19) as he watches the train pull away from him. Their progression to waving is perhaps inspired by the pair’s increased confidence as the train gathers speed, knowing that nothing more can come of this shared moment. The ‘atrocious speed’ gathered by the train as it leaves the station draws the pace of the poem on from the languid enjoyment of the brief moments described by the speaker in the earlier stanzas. The train, like time, is moving quickly and is beyond either person’s control. We return again to Edward Thomas’s poem in the closing lines of ‘Not Adlestrop’, as the train moves towards ‘Oxfordshire or Gloucestershire’ , evoking ‘the birds / Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire’ that sing at the end of Thomas’s work. The return to the route laid out in Thomas’s poem may be read as a return to the expected journey, suggesting that the pair will now continue with their respective travels as if this encounter had never happened.

LINE-BY-LINE COMMENTS ON THE POEM

Lines 19 - 22 (continued). These lines also present us with the death of the speaker’s wife. Rather than the dance of earlier in the poem, however, death here is imagined as a bird’s beak opening and a final sigh (i.e. a final breath) being released from it. Interestingly, Thomas describes this as a ‘ shedding ’ of a sigh – precisely suggesting that something old and worn out is being got rid of by this process (in the way that a snake sheds its skin). Through this image, life itself seems to have been worn out. Indeed, the poem’s final thought suggests just how insubstantial life is in any case: the wife’s final breath is barely present at all, being ‘ no / heavier than a feather ’ – insubstantial, delicate. Of course, the feather continues the poem’s engagement with birds until the very end. But by the final line, there is nothing left of living birds – they have vanished. Instead, all that remains is a feather. Just like the woman’s life in the poem, the life of the poem’s imagery itself has drawn to a conclusion.

FOUR QUESTIONS STUDENTS MIGHT

ASK ABOUT THE POEM

What does the poem have to say about the importance of living in the moment?

How is body language important in the poem?

How do the reader’s feelings about the speaker change as they read the poem?

The poem uses repetition throughout; what effect does this repetition have?

PHOTOGRAPHS

**- http://www.amitlennon.com/amitsphotos/2014/10/8/dannie-abse-poet#.W4XSavZFzIU

• http://www.dannieabse.com/**

The first photo is an image of Abse as a younger man, pictured at Ogmore beach with his wife, Joan. The image offers an insight into the relationship between Dannie and Joan, who died following a tragic car accident in 2005.

The second photo depicts an older Abse in a relaxed moment at his North London home in 2007. The shot captures the hope and love of life which characterise Abse’s work and demonstrate his resilience, even in the wake of personal loss.

• https://www.mediastorehouse.com/steam/places/stations-halts-gloucestershire- stations-adlestrop-station/adlestrop-station-1933-11923252.html

This image is a photo of the train station ‘Adlestrop’ as it looked when it was still in use in 1933. The station was closed in 1966 when all sidings were also removed from the stop. A sign from the railway line which bore the name ‘Adlestrop’ was moved to a bus shelter in the nearby town following the closure of the train station, along with a plaque which is engraved with Edward Thomas’s poem about the station.

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