The Prelude

• What are the big ideas in the prelude ?

  confidence, fear, reflection and power of nature
• What’s the structure of the prelude ?

  • First person narrative - personal
  • Blank verse (un rhymed iambic pentameter) - creates a serious tone
  • Dark tone - fearful, reflection
  • Light tone - carefree
• What’s a summary of the prelude ?

  • Narrator finds a boat tied to a tree, he unties it goes on the lake, appears confident
  • Until he sees a mountain (becomes afraid)
  • Turns the boat around, his view of nature has changed
• What’s the context of the prelude ?

  Wordsworth was a romantic poet which links to the connection between nature and humane motion
• “One summer evening (led by her)”

  Ambiguity- who is her?,

  Could be nature personified
• “elfin pinnace”

  • Metaphor for a “fairy boat”
  • Creates magical, unthreatening tone
• ”upreared its head”

  • Personification of mountain, ugly
• “Huge peak, black and huge”

  • repetition - incoherent, lost for words
  • Fear of nature
• “Like living men”

  Simile - nature is powerful, a conscious being that can influence life
• “Were a trouble to my dreams”

  • Unsettling image - ruined his imagination
  • Contrasts his mood at the start