Edward Thomas Fellowship Year 12 and 13 Close Reading Competition 2022/23 – Results
In the competition’s inaugural year, we invited year 12 and 13 students to write a close reading of Edward Thomas’ “Adlestrop”.
We were delighted to receive a total of 29 entries altogether, from ten different schools. The quality of the essays was generally very high, and it was challenging to narrow down the essays to a shortlist of ten. Choosing winners and runners up was even more difficult.
Congratulations go to the following students and our thanks to everyone who submitted an entry. Perhaps those in Year 12 will have another go next year ….
Winner:
Michelle M, Winchester College
Prize: £100, essay published in Edward Thomas Fellowship newsletter, one year’s free membership of Edward Thomas Fellowship
Runners up:
Olivia H, St Catherine’s School, Bramley
Hannah N, Highgate School
Prize: £50 each
Shortlisted:
Kate A, St Catherine’s School, Bramley
Annabelle D, St Catherine’s School, Bramley
Aidan L, Peter Symonds College
Fiona M, Peter Symonds College
Helena M, Peter Symonds College
Ivo S, Winchester College
Francesca W, Winchester College
Prize: All ten shortlisted students named in Edward Thomas Fellowship newsletter and on social media pages (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram)
The competition judge, Professor Lucy Newlyn, commented that Michelle’s winning essay “is steadily observant and perceptive, as well as clearly written with no pretentious flourishes”. Overall, she was impressed with the “thoughtful material” produced by students.
The winning essay, by Michelle M:
“Adlestrop, a simple yet charming poem examining the serenity of nature, comes from a chance occurrence in the summer of 1914, a few weeks before the outbreak of war, when Edward Thomas’ train came to an unscheduled stop in the village of Adlestrop. There, he had time to reflect, examining the beauty of the seemingly mundane place.
Adlestrop contains consistent rhyming in the second and fourth line of each stanza, giving it a comforting feel correspondent with the poem’s tranquillity, and is written in first person to show it is a personal experience, one better demonstrated as speech. The use of caesura marks breaks for breaths, furthering that sense of intimacy which pervades throughout the memory being recounted. The first stanza starts with the simple, ambiguous declaration of ‘yes’, showing he is speaking directly to the reader, and instantly draws one’s attention with its abruptness, especially as the reader is told of ‘Adlestrop’, a place they are unlikely to have heard of before. It has a whimsical sound to it, one likely to lead to curiosity, but there is also a sense of impatience at first, suggested by the emphasis of ‘one afternoon of heat’, with connotations of discomfort. This is backed by the adverb ‘unwontedly’ to comment on the spontaneity of the train stopping there, seeming critical.
Afterwards, the focus shifts to sound, bringing the memory to life: ‘the steam hissed’ and ‘someone cleared his throat’. There is an eeriness about ‘no one’ on the platform – this contrasts with ‘someone’ on the train and shows Adlestrop’s isolation. The adjective ‘bare’ is bleak, and the one thing he can see on the platform is ‘only the name’. This is the second time that ‘the name’ of Adlestrop is mentioned and this emphasis may be to highlight the random things in life we remember: sometimes, small memories remain with us, profound and touching despite their apparent insignificance.
Thomas then fixates on nature to bring a positive outlook, using personification to describe the clouds as ‘No whit less still’, demonstrating nature is free-spirited and independent, even sentient. This is a sentiment shared in more of his poetry: for instance, in ‘Aspens’, Thomas focuses on how ‘The aspens at the cross-roads talk together of rain’, using personification to show nature should be regarded as important. As well as this, Adlestrop’s description of ‘cloudlets’ suggests there are few of them, their isolation reflecting the station and implying how nature thrives without the destruction of humankind. Isolation is not presented as depressing: on the contrary, it offers opportunity for peaceful reflection. After all, a sky with less clouds is clearer.
This admiration of nature continues as the poetic persona becomes impressed by it all. He fixates on a single blackbird, but this expands from ‘close by’ to ‘father and farther’ before using the hyperbolic statement to include ‘all the birds’, showing us the process of his appreciation building. There is something grandiose, almost mesmerising about the exaggeration. The specificity ‘of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire’ lends a degree of plausibility to the claim, showing the poet’s new contentedness as his focus shifts from the train’s delay to focus on the merits of the situation. The first two stanzas notably consist of three sentences each while the last two only have one, suggesting a change from apathy to enthusiasm as the speaker is carried away by his appreciation. By increasing the intensity of the sentences, dragging them out and giving less pause for breath, Thomas reflects the poetic persona’s growing satisfaction.
‘Adlestrop’ also looks at the theme of time as the busy world slows down to a brief ‘minute’ where everything stills, contrasting with the bustling modern world. There is a calmness in ‘no one left and no one came’: in that moment, there is no stress, just nature and observation. Time is further mentioned in Thomas’ poem ‘As the Team’s Head Brass’ with ‘so the talk began – one minute and an interval of ten, a minute more and the same interval’. Thomas’ chosen emphasis of ‘one minute’ shows how short moments of time can have a large impact, causing long intervals of reflection after. By centring on time, ‘Adlestrop’ shows how brief moments can last forever: the use of ‘for that minute’ centres in on that period and its impact. This meaning has even more effect due to the poem’s proximity to the start of war, where the loss of life made every moment count more.
Thomas’ writings centred around the environment and its impact on human spirit. He filled nature journals with observations, showing his reverence for the natural world, and this appreciation of nature continues to play a profound role in a time where climate change has become such an issue, highlighting the beauty of nature and how we should appreciate rather than destroy it.”