Below, you’ll find a poem and analysis of Wordsworth’s ‘Prelude’, specifically the ‘Extract’ about boating – rowing out on a mountain lake. Pantheism is a spiritual belief that God exists in everything – that all matter, animate and inanimate, is an expression of God or a higher power. The then society of Eliot is presented as a waste land where corruption and desolation are dominant in the cycle of meaningless life. And through the silent water stole my way Please support Poem Analysis by adding us to your whitelist in your ad blocker. This can symbolize moving from childhood to adulthood. One summer evening (led by her) I found A little boat tied to a willow tree Within a rocky cove, its usual home. The Romantics were big on childhood innocence, so expressing this sublime encounter in sexual imagery could suggest the shift into adult maturity. In the first part of this poem, the speaker begins by recalling how he came upon a boat tied to a tree along the water. This dramatic landscape served as inspiration for his poetry and contributed to the formation and development of his personal character as well as literary themes in his writing. ‘This’, he tells us, ‘is in I love it, a very insightful point of view! We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Wordsworth first began work on the poem … Eliot that depicts starkly the characteristic Modernist trope of urban absurdity, monotony, and squalor. The fear and awe that he experiences when seeing the vastness of the mountain reminded him of the higher power that nature holds, its eternality, and infinite complexity. Thanks for reading! In a gush of emotion, he praises the breezes, the brooks, and the groves for healing his spirit: Oh! This marks a turning point for the boy and symbolizes a maturation of his mind. Of sparkling light. For him, the growth of moral and aesthetic independence starts with freedom and never finishes. In this poem extract of The Prelude, Wordsworth presents two contrasting ideas about nature, and allows the reader to decide what nature means to him or herself personally. It is the most popular metrical pattern throughout the history of English verse. He turned his boat around, and made his way back “with trembling ours”. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. The mood changes and nature becomes frightening. Instead, the stanzas and preludes have different patterns. With trembling oars I turned, William Wordsworth was one of the first and most influential of the Romantic era. if we want to ask question from the poet about the poem what question does we ask? Epic poem – the extract is from a much larger autobiographical poem, entitled ‘The Prelude, or the Growth of a Poet’s Mind’. Narrative structure – the poem is set out like an anecdote, a personal story that sets an example. The final lines of The Prelude extract reveal the effect that this experience has had on the speaker. I think you may have nailed your interpretation. The speaker suddenly feared when he had not feared before. This demonstrates a change in personality and state of mind initiated by the frightening experience. There is not one specific rhyme scheme that lasts throughout the entire text. He was now keenly aware that he could encounter danger at every turn, and this awareness “hung a darkness” over him and made him feel a “blank desertion”. Many children feel safe in the care of their parents and are not aware of the dangers of the world until one event or another opens their eyes to the reality that the world is a dangerous place. Repetition – ‘a trouble to my dreams’ – the final line of the extract (not the final line of the poem, as this is only a section of a larger poem) repeats the verb ‘trouble’, showing anxiety and difficulty, restlessness, and the fact that Wordsworth has an uneasy sleep after his experience. An interesting take for sure. The poem has a conversational style which makes it into a narrative form, using anecdotes from the poet’s own life. When he takes the boat out, he thinks of how beautiful nature is and he doesn’t realise how powerful and frightening it can be; the experience with the mountain is an encounter with the Romantic idea of the sublime: it leaves him humble and with a more realistic view of the world. In the last post, I looked at the context and form of the extract called Stealing The Boat from Wordsworth’s The Prelude. Personification is a type of figurative language that occurs when the poet imbues non-human things with human characteristics. This change has an important impact on both reader and speaker. There’s all this female imagery, the lake and the moon, and the solitary male intruder slides into this before getting all excited: all the stuff about shafts and peaks and dipping, etc. Leaving behind her still, on either side, In this work the poet describes his experiences of growing up as a man and a poet with fullness, closeness and laborious anxiety that is unique in English literature. The Prelude, in full The Prelude, or Growth of a Poet’s Mind, autobiographical epic poem in blank verse by William Wordsworth, published posthumously in 1850.Originally planned as an introduction to another work, the poem is organized into 14 sections, or books. And serious mood; but after I had seen Glad you liked the analysis. The short third line interrupts the rhythm with three syllables. He’s terrified by a mountain (?) It is written in blank verse. It may at first seem serene and peaceful, but this soon transitions into a sense of foreboding as the speaker have a frightening encounter with the mountain. He knew that he shouldn’t steal the boat, but he also brought him pleasure. This extract describes how Wordsworth went out in a boat on a lake at night. First-person singular pronoun ‘I’ – the narrative is told from a personal, subjective perspective as Wordsworth recounts his own formative personal experiences from his youth and childhood. Yet, we can see from his perspective that he suddenly realised that the giant mountain, an expression of God itself, was watching him and judging his arrogant behaviour. In this early passage from The Prelude, the speaker recalls a night when he, as a young boy, steals a boat and rows out into the middle of a lake. But huge and mighty forms, that do not live GROWTH ; The poem shows the spiritual growth of the poet, how he comes to terms with who he is, and his place in nature and the world. Of sparkling light. Please log in again. The opening lines of The Prelude reveal the speaker’s relationship with “her” or nature. Then, an event occurs which changes the speaker’s feelings toward the world. He looks up to “the horizon’s utmost boundary” and sees “nothing but the stars and the grey sky”. The Prelude is a long autobiographical poem that Wordsworth worked on for much of his adult life in which he describes his early years and his development as a poet sage. This realization hung over him for the rest of his days, and he was never able to see the world in the light of childhood again. To commune with nature is to experience a higher power, and we must always remain humble in the face of it – following on with the idea of hubris (which is also a typical trait of a tragic hero who is ultimately doomed to fail in their endeavours), Wordsworth’s attitude at the beginning of the extract is selfish and brazen: he acts exactly as he pleases, giving in to his urges and impulses without question. Wordsworth’s prelude explores his childhood thoughts and the ways in which he has changed and grown over time. Within a rocky cove, its usual home. Many passages can tolerate two or more readings and afford new meaning at each reading. The title of the poem holds a special position in terms of analysis. Sorry. It is described maternally. Yes, a misunderstanding of what ‘reared’ up – a peak, not some kind of beast. Of sea or sky, no colours of green fields; But huge and mighty forms, that do not live, Like living men, moved slowly through the mind, Stealth – sneaky, secretive behaviour; suggests a thief or cunning, Pinnace – small exploratory boat, driven by oars, Idle / idly – lazy/ lazily, without movement, Unswerving – not moving off course, not moving left or right, Stature – can mean the height of a person but it can also mean their reputation, respectability, importance, or status, Craggy – covered in crags, sharp, jagged, rough rock, Mooring-place – a place where you tie up a boat. For example, he describes in the first lines being “led” by nature to the boat along the lake. “The Prelude” is long, running to about 8000 lines but it is the earliest sections dealing with Wordsworth’s childhood that have commanded most interest and comment. Critical Essays Analysis of The Prelude " The Prelude is the greatest long poem in our language after Paradise Lost ," says one critic. While enjoying all that nature had to offer in that moment, the speaker fixes his gaze on his destination. Many critics point out that The Prelude offers particularly unique insight into Wordsworth's own personal life and the events that influenced his poetry. By day, and were a trouble to my dreams. It consists of fourteen books and it revolves around Wordsworth’s life experiences, his mental and spiritual growth. In ‘The Prelude (Extract)’ the poet makes use of several literary devices. He was not able to subdue it and use it to his pleasure. ‘Prelude’ itself is a whole book, which some critics have called an epic poem as it follows the formative experiences of the poet in his boyhood and youth, setting out these experiences in the form of different dramatic episodes. The experience the speaker has here reveals that nature is not always man’s friend. After logging in you can close it and return to this page. Upreared its head. Now, there was something to fear greatly. Hope that helps. I loved this poem, passed my English exam after reading and going through this poem! Throughout this passage, his personality progresses from being overconfident – ‘I struck and struck’ – too frightened and depressed – ‘huge and mighty forms…were a trouble to my dreams’. "The Waste Land" and "Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" are among the most famous poems of all time, after all.Or maybe you've seen the famous Broadway musical Cats, which was based on his work.Yeah, the guy is basically a legend. The impression is that in the end it was a positive experience overall and enabled him to become a better person, even though at the time it seemed frightening and damaging it did him good in the long term. She leads him to a boat. With trembling oars I turned.”. ... And this image of the river introduced at the very start of “The Prelude” becomes one of the poem’s key ideas. Every single person that visits PoemAnalysis.com has helped contribute, so thank you for your support. These include but are not limited to personification, caesura, and enjambment. In a way, he has passed from the carefree, fearless days of childhood into the reality of adulthood. I really liked the prom and it handsome really nice ideas in the text, this has helped me to get some ideas for my text now lets hope that I can remember all of this information , thank you a lot the poem was great. It is a region full of dramatic landscapes with beautiful, ever-changing weather and seasons, there are many lakes in the area and these are typically closed off from each other and surrounded by large mountains, giving each lake its own distinctive character and feeling. Its comparison with the great seventeenth-century epic is in some respects a happy one since Milton was (after Coleridge) Wordsworth's greatest idol. It may seem odd at first, but this is actually a clever and complex poem that serves as an allegory for the interactions between humans and nature; it concludes that we should always respect the natural world and never abuse it or take it for granted. The first of these is unstressed and these second is stressed. Since ‘The Prelude’ is considered to be autobiographical in nature, Wordsworth spends the poem recounting his spiritual development from a youth to an adult. The four preludes are written in free verse that goes in and out of organized meter and rhyme. Was nothing but the stars and the grey sky. To me, the extract describes a minor adventure by a youngster who starts out in high spirits amid “familiar shapes” and “pleasant images” of the countryside, but with a slightly disquieting guilt over the borrowing of the skiff. He was alone and at first it was fun and exciting, but then a mountain peak loomed over him; its presence had a greatly humbling effect and for days afterwards he was troubled by the experience. Analysis I’m a bit confused as to what you are asking here. As a human, he’s disturbing and disrupting the peace of the natural world and the ‘silent lake’ in order to escape the mountain – curiously, there is an irony in the fact the mountain itself is not active, it is not chasing him or posing any kind of physical threat – so the ruckus that the poet makes as he leaves the scene is the result of a disturbance in his own mind rather than any physical threat.