extract from, the prelude

• The Prelude by William Wordsworth is an epic poem with fourteen books, focusing on his childhood memory in the Lake District where he steals a boat and rows it into the middle of a lake
• The poem explores the conflict between nature and humans, or man vs nature, through a young man's attempt to control nature by rowing a stolen boat
• Wordsworth's childhood event in the Lake District brings a tone of realism to the poem, and the setting in a boat metaphorically relates to the spiritual journey the speaker is taking in realizing the true extent of nature, introducing the theme of reflection
• Wordsworth was a romantic poet who aimed to challenge people's preconceptions and viewpoints by resisting industrialism and exploring moral and spiritual development through nature and society in his autobiographical epic poem 'The Prelude'
• The romantic writers, like Wordsworth, protested institutions and sources of power, used everyday language in their work to make it accessible, and expressed their dislike of urban life as a reaction to the industrial revolution
• The active verb "heaving" connotes sustained, intense physical effort, breaking the illusion of control as the mountain rises from the water, revealing nature's supremacy
• The mountain in The Prelude seems to be living with intent, wanting to reveal itself, which suggests the reader can empathize with the speaker's fear and anxiety, juxtaposing how nature initially worked with him but now has turned against him
• Attachment is a strong reciprocal emotional bond between an infant and a primary caregiver
• Schaffer and Emerson's 1964 study on attachment aimed to identify stages of attachment and find a pattern in the development of attachment between infants and parents
• Participants in the study were 60 babies from Glasgow
• The study analyzed interactions between infants and carers, finding that babies of parents with 'sensitive responsiveness' were more likely to have formed an attachment
• In glacial environments, the 2 main forms of erosion are abrasion and plucking
• Abrasion is a sandpapering effect caused by small rocks embedded within the glacier rubbing on bedrock, usually leaving a smooth surface with scratches called striations
• Plucking occurs when meltwater from glaciers freeze around broken or cracked parts of rock, breaking it off from the bedrock or sides as the ice moves down the slope
• Plucking is most prominent when there are many joints in the rock, allowing water to penetrate and freeze in the cracks
• The Prelude was intended as the prologue to the planned three-part epic poem "The Recluse," reflecting that it is an introduction for a larger work
• The speaker in The Prelude is a fictionalized version of William Wordsworth, with the poem revealing personal details of his life through strong first-person narration in the past tense
• The Prelude is structured as an epic poem, potentially focusing on nature personified as the hero, with the entire extract being a single stanza emphasizing the overwhelming power of nature
• Wordsworth uses parallelism in The Prelude to contrast the speaker's state before and after the revelation of nature's power, highlighting the transformative experience
• A cyclical structure is employed in The Prelude to emphasize that the change during the journey was internal and psychological, beginning and ending in the mooring of the boat
• The concept of attachment is a strong reciprocal emotional bond between an infant and a primary caregiver
• Participants in the study were 60 babies from Glasgow, and the procedure involved analyzing interactions between infants and carers
• Enjambment in Wordsworth's poem creates a sense of lack of control and a stream of consciousness, conveying an uncontrollable urge to express the power of nature
• Findings from the study showed that babies of parents or carers who displayed 'sensitive responsiveness' were more likely to have formed an attachment
• As the poem progresses and the speaker becomes overwhelmed by the mountain, the language becomes less sophisticated, with descriptions becoming more simplistic and clumsy
• The repetition of "huge" in Wordsworth's poem emphasizes the sheer size of the mountain, possibly indicating the speaker's nervousness and intimidation in the face of nature's raw power
• Wordsworth uses personification to describe nature, referring to it as "her" or "she," alluding to the idea of Mother Nature and highlighting nature's nurturing and superior power compared to humans
• Wordsworth's use of similes in the poem aims to help readers understand his experience and share his knowledge of nature's power to warn against supporting the industrial revolution
• The poet employs thematic semantic fields of nature, power, and pride to create an emotive atmosphere in his work
• By romanticizing his memory of the event, Wordsworth suggests that his revelation of nature's power had a significant influence on him, transforming his ordinary experience into a mythical and magical one
• Wordsworth uses the motif of the mountain in his poem to symbolize the underestimation of nature's power, reflecting humanity's misplaced confidence and false sense of superiority over nature
• The theme of pride in Wordsworth's poem is comparable to that in John Milton's "Paradise Lost," both highlighting how humanity's hubris leads to ignorance and offenses against the forces they underestimate
• The speaker's ignorance of nature's power is manifested in the darkness and lack of color in the poem, symbolizing his realization of his own insignificance and naivety
• Both "The Prelude" and "Ozymandias" display nature as more powerful than mankind, showcasing human power as weak and transient compared to the enduring power of nature
• In both poems, the theme of pride leads to the eventual fall of the speaker, linking to Milton's "Paradise Lost" and the concept of the 'fall of man'
• While both poets explore how pride is unfounded due to human power being inferior to nature, they present this idea differently, with Wordsworth focusing on the overwhelming power of nature affecting the speaker's eloquence, while Shelley uses symbolism to convey nature's power in "Ozymandias"
• Both "The Prelude" and "Storm On The Island" depict nature as powerful, with the speakers in each poem discovering truths about the world through their encounters with nature
• In "Storm On The Island," the conflict with nature is physical, as if being attacked, while in "The Prelude," it is psychological, inciting fear and redefining the speaker's view of the world