the prelude

• William Woodsworth was a poet from the Lake District he liked nature
• this autobiographical poem explores key moments in his life. he looks back on a winter childhood memory the sun is setting, he is having a good time then he reflects on nature
• the poem is split into two main sections

  1. focuses on the children having fun the tone is light and carefree
  2. after the Volta "meanwhile" the tone becomes more serious to show the awareness of nature
• Wordsworth uses short monosyllabic verbs ie. "flew" to increase pace showing youthful energy
• he uses sibilance and onomatopoeia to show sounds in the poem that are contrasting between humans and nature
• first person makes it personal
• blank verse and enjambment provides a regular rhythm making the poem seem like natural speech
• there is a feeling of nostalgia with the presented idyllic scene
• there is a sense of awareness as the poem goes on, he appreciates the natural world on a large scale "distant hills"
• "through the twilight blazed"

  warmth, a happy memory
• "heeded not the summons"

  shows their enthusiastic carefree attitude, they did not want to leave
• there are multiple caesuras in the poem which creates many breaths breaking up the speech. this shows the breathlessness of the writer, how engrossed

  he is in his memory, creating a sense of excitement
• "like an untir'd horse" a simile to show the strength and freedom in this memory, mirroring the freedom of happiness he had as a child
• human sounds are presented as loud but familiar such as a "resounding horn", "bellowing"
• natures sounds are presented as soft but also unfamiliar "tinkled like iron","alien sound"
• the last four lines present a contrasting tone with the "alien sound","of melancholy". melancholy is not usually associated with a sound, this is an example of synaesthesia which presents the writers sadness being his nostalgia
• the final two lines show the passage of time with the "orange sky of evening died away", the sunset being just as unstoppable. instead childhood pleasures mutate into adulthood awareness and nostalgia