Extract from, The Prelude

• What is the key theme of "The Prelude"?

  Power of nature
• What does the speaker find tied to a willow tree?

  A little boat
• What action does the speaker take with the boat?

  He unlooses her chain and steps in
• How does the speaker describe the act of pushing from the shore?

  As an act of stealth and troubled pleasure
• What imagery is used to describe the boat's movement on the water?

  Small circles glittering idly in the moon
• What does the speaker fix his view upon while rowing?

  The summit of a craggy ridge
• What does the horizon's utmost boundary consist of?

  Stars and the grey sky
• How does the speaker describe the boat during the rowing?

  Like a swan
• How does the speaker perceive the huge peak?

  As if with voluntary power instinct
• What does the speaker encounter that towers between him and the stars?

  A huge peak, black and huge
• What happens to the speaker's oars as he rows?

  He strikes and strikes again
• How does the grim shape of the peak appear to the speaker?

  With purpose of its own and measured motion
• What emotional response does the speaker have after leaving the boat?

  He feels grave and serious
• What does the speaker's brain work with after the experience?

  A dim and undetermined sense of unknown modes of being
• What does the speaker describe as hanging over his thoughts?

  A darkness, call it solitude or blank desertion
• What familiar shapes does the speaker mention are no longer present?

  No pleasant images of trees, sea, or sky
• How does the speaker describe the huge and mighty forms in his mind?

  They moved slowly through the mind like living men
• How does Wordsworth's experience in nature affect his emotional state?

  • Initial feelings of pleasure and tranquility
  • Transition to feelings of fear and solitude
  • Lasting impact on his thoughts and dreams
• What poetic techniques are evident in "The Prelude"?

  • Enjambment throughout the poem
  • Single stanza verse emphasizing feelings
  • Use of blank verse (iambic pentameter without rhyme)