the prelude

• Power

  The speaker's ignorance of the power of nature is manifested in the "darkness" and lack of colour as the speaker has realised that he has been living metaphorically in the dark, so is naïve and unaware of his own insignificance.
• The title "The Prelude"

  The epic poem The Prelude was intended as the prologue to the planned three-part epic poem "The Recluse", which he died never finishing, so the title basically reflects that this poem is an introduction for a larger body or text / work.
• Perspective

  • As the epic poem as a whole is autobiographical, the speaker can be assumed to be a fictionalised version of William Wordsworth himself. This means the poem reveals many personal details of his life. This is emphasised by the strong first person narration with the use of past tense which shows that the speaker is recalling events which are very clear to him and personally experienced.
  • Whilst the epic is written generally in past tense, Wordsworth also uses many present participles for description such as "leaving", "sparkling" and "glittering". Through blurring past and present Wordsworth shows the reader how this experience has shaped how he lives and how he still views the world in the present, as if he were to be experiencing it anew.
• Epic Poem

  • The Prelude has been written as an Epic Poem. These are lengthy, narrative poems that often focused around a heroic protagonist and the legendary events they were involved in. They can be considered one of the first forms of poetry. They were typically written to incite a sense of awe in the reader as the narrative often focused on the heroism of the central character.
  • The Prelude can arguably be considered an Epic biography poem, and if it is autobiographical, then Wordsworth is its hero. However, it can also be argued that the "hero" is not Wordsworth, but nature personified. Some critics claim the poem's focus on nature and mundane everyday life makes it seem underwhelming compared to most epics (e.g. Homer's Odyssey), as a scared child is poor competition as a hero, and growing up is not really a heroic event.
• Epic Poem

  • However, it is possible Wordsworth intended the adventure to not be his physical actions but his spiritual growth and journey to becoming a poet, including his awakening to nature's power and his own insignificance, these providing the epic factor to the poem. If this is true, then The Prelude can be seen as an epic - if not literally - then at a metaphoric level.
• Stanza structure

  • The entire extract is a single stanza which emphasises the overwhelming power of nature. This is heightened because there are no breaks or pauses which causes the reader to feel breathless.
  • If the reader feels overwhelmed by the intensity of the poem, this could be to reflect how Wordsworth was overwhelmed by the immensity of the mountain and nature. The readers can empathise with the speaker's sense of awe towards the "huge peak" as they are also faced with a huge piece of text that offers no breaks or pauses, causing the reader to feel overwhelmed just as the speaker does.
  • This sensation increases as the stanza drags on, contributing to the building up of tension as the reader approaches the peak.
  • This breathless pace is also intensified by frequent enjambment and connectives that prevent the reader from pausing, inciting a sense of vastness in the reader by making the poem feel endless and immense.
• Parallelism

  • Wordsworth uses parallelism in his poem to contrast how the speaker was before and after the revelation of nature's power. This highlights how the experience has acted as a catalyst in his development.
  • Parallelisms are shown in the speaker's rowing:
  • When the speaker is setting out on his journey his oar strokes "melted all into one track". This shows the speaker how easily he is able to move through the water in an "unswerving line".
  • However, his rowing becomes laboured after seeing the mountain and he starts "heaving through the water". The active verb "heaving" connotes sustained, intense physical effort. Here, the speaker's illusion of control is broken as the mountain rises from the water, and nature's supremacy becomes apparent.
  • The initial calm and relaxed rowing is contrasted with the frantic rowing back to shore which is reinforced by the repetition of "struck" in later lines.
• Cyclical Structure

  • Wordsworth employs a cyclical structure in his poem to emphasise that the change that took place during the journey was internal and psychological rather than external and physical. It begins and ends in the mooring of the boat - his journey begins and finishes in the same place.
  • However, despite starting and finishing in the same place there are subtle changes which are shown through Wordsworth's use of a linguistic echo. When the speaker sets out in his stolen boat it is "an act of stealth" then when he returned home he "stole my way back to the covert of the willow tree".
• Here, the psychological change of the speaker is shown to the reader through the change from the speaker's "stealth" to him being afraid and "stole" away back to the land.

  • At the beginning his stole the boat because he viewed himself as dominant and had no care for consequences whereas at the end he "stole" away because he feared the consequences of challenging nature's omnipotence.
  • In the first instance, the stealing is literal and symbolic of the speaker's arrogance in feeling entitled to the use of the boat and to the enjoyment of nature.
  • However, on his return, "stole" becomes indicative of his humility and his fear in the face of nature's true power. This fear causes him to retreat to what is safe and familiar.
• Enjambment

  Wordsworth's use of this device makes the poem flow but also gives a sense of a lack of control from the lack of structure. This makes the poem feel like a stream of consciousness. The enjambement suggests an uncontrollable urge to convey the power of nature, hinting that he wants to try and express what he felt.
• Loss of Eloquence

  • As the poem progresses and the speaker becomes overwhelmed by the mountain the language becomes less sophisticated.
  • At the start of the poem the language is poetic and descriptive, such as "elfin pinnace" and "small circles glittering idly".
  • However, the revelation of nature's true power renders him literally speechless and his descriptions become more simplistic and clumsy. He repeats the adjective "huge" at the beginning and end of "a huge peak, black and huge" to compensate for his devolved vocabulary.
  • Wordsworth's description focuses on simple statements of size and colour. This shock at the limits of his world being redefined - the "craggy ridge" is no longer the "horizon's bound" - is reflected by his inability to continue to define the world with his language.
• Repetition

  • The repetition of "huge" also emphasises the sheer size of the mountain. Perhaps Wordsworth couldn't think of a comparison to how big the mountain is as it is incomparable.
  • The repetition sounds like stuttering, which may suggest he nervous and intimidated in the face of such raw power.
• Wordsworth uses personification to describe nature. He opens the poem with reference to being "(led by her)" which shapes how the reader views the whole poem. His reference to nature as "her" or "she" is an allusion to the idea of Mother Nature, a common theme across mythology.

  • Nature can be seen as female in that it is responsible for the feminine task of creating, sustaining and nurturing life - just as a mother does.
  • By using personification, Wordsworth is able to contrast the role of nature to the role of a human - whilst women nurture a single child; nature nurtures an entire planet thus demonstrating its superior power.
• Equally, nature's power is demonstrated by the speaker being "led by her", suggesting the speaker is not in control of his actions and in a way elevates blame from him for any negative actions. Wordsworth references nature in parenthesis ["(led by her)"] suggesting it was added later. This implies he was unaware of this control until his moment of revelation when he realised nature's supremacy. The parenthesis also works to imply that nature was in control of the revelation of the peak, revealing itself to him with the intention to humble him.
• Similes

  Wordsworth uses similes in order to try and help his readers understand his experience, for example through the phrases "like a swan", "like a living thing" and "like one who rows". It seems the speaker wants to share the knowledge he has gained, specifically his knowledge of nature's power, in order to warn humanity against engaging in and supporting the industrial revolution.
• Semantic Fields

  The poet employs a range of thematically focused, semantic fields, namely of nature, power and pride to create an emotive atmosphere and setting for his piece of work.
• Mythology

  By romanticising his memory of the event (his revelation of nature's power), it suggests that it had such a big influence on him that it has caused him to remember it as mythical and magical. His "little boat" is transformed into an "elfin pinnace" - felt like he was undertaking a very significant journey and event, and that it was his spiritual journey of self discovery. The boat is his means of achieving this and it takes on a mythical quality in the poem.
• Nature

  Wordsworth uses the motif of the mountain to portray the underestimation of nature's power. The speaker can be seen as symbolic of humanity as a whole. The speaker believed "the summit of a craggy peak" to be the extent of his world, and the extent of nature's power over his world.

  • The definitive statement that this is "the horizon's utmost boundary" shows humanity's misplaced confidence and false sense of superiority over nature.
  • When the true size of the mountain is revealed to be a "huge peak, black and huge" it is not the mountain itself that scares him, but rather the implications of his judgement of the world being deeply flawed.
  • He is intimidated not by the physical size of the mountain, but by the existential realisation of his own insignificance; the confidence in nature's inferiority was a dangerous misconception.
• The Prelude

  • The main conflict explored in the poem is that of between nature and humans, or man vs nature, and is investigated through a young man's attempt to control nature through his stolen rowing boat.
  • The piece is written in iambic pentameter to keep a constant rhythm which to contrast the revelatory events which occur to the young man in this section of the poem.
  • The poem is based on Wordsworth's childhood, during an event which happened in the Lake District, which brings a tone of realism to the piece. This is obviously a formative event in his life.
  • The setting of the poem in a boat, on a journey, could metaphorically relate to the spiritual journey the speaker is taking in realising the true extent of nature. This introduces both the reader and speaker to the theme of reflection.
• Romantic Movement

  Romanticism stemmed from the enlightenment period which focused on objective science, logic and rationality.

  • Writers at the time wanted to reject the cold unemotional rationalism of the enlightenment and instead use a more emotional and subjective view of the world.
  • They looked to the beauty of nature and past life in order to protest against the changing face of the world which was happening due to industrialisation.
• The romantic writers would also follow enlightened values of protesting institutions and sources of power (church / monarch / army), and use their work to comment on society and how it should be reformed.

  They tended to use everyday language to make poems accessible to all.

  The period can be considered a reaction to the industrial revolution, as writers often expressed their dislike of urban life.

  As Wordsworth was a romantic poet, this means he wished to write literature which challenged people's preconceptions and viewpoints at the time.
• William Wordsworth (1770 - 1850)

  • Wordsworth was a romantic poet, which meant he was in favour of resisting growing industrialism by remembering a simpler, natural past. The changing shape of industrial Britain is likely the force that inspired him to explore his own moral and spiritual development through the medium of his autobiographical epic poem 'The Prelude'. The poem also comes with a message of warning to the contemporary society that was transforming fields to factories, woods to roads.
  • He was also an early supporter of the French revolution, like many romantic poets, who supported attempts to overthrow institutions. Their aim was to bring democracy and equality instead of monarchs and established religion to England. However, in general the romantic movement later lost support for the revolution when it turned violent, seeing it as evidence of humanity's innate evil.
• Synopsis

  • Steals a boat and rows out onto the lake
  • Watches ripples as he easily rows whilst focusing on a fixed point
  • Starts to see the mountain grow bigger than he thought it was
  • Realises the immensity of the mountain and of nature
  • Scared and starts to row back to the shore
  • Haunted by the event for days after
  • Has changed how he views nature and how he views humanity
• (led by her)


  Can be considered an allusion to the idea of Mother Nature, and nature can be seen as female in that it is responsible for the feminine task of creating, sustaining and nurturing life - just as a mother does. By using personification, Wordsworth is able to contrast the role of nature to the role of a human - whilst women nurture a single child; nature nurtures an entire planet thus demonstrating its superior power.
• Its usual home.


  Wordsworth puts in a lot of description about how he steals the boat. Could be considered an attempt to romanticize, in order to defend his actions or mitigate their moral detriment.
• "troubled pleasure"


  Oxymoronic phrase shows he knows he has no right to be stealing the boat but feels entitled to enjoy nature, and arrogance of believing he was in control
• "trouble to my dreams"


  Nature transcends mankind and it is not bound by time or restrictions of life. Therefore, nature takes many forms to demonstrate its power and this phrase shows the long term impact nature has on him, this transformative effect could also be considered humbling but haunting.
• "But huge and mighty forms, that do not live liking living men,"


  The speaker thinks he is in control - reaching his "chosen point" performing an "act of stealth", but really he is just following nature - controlled by greater force. Applying this to society, Wordsworth may be suggesting how mankind always thinks it is in control but it is always subject to nature.
• "Proud of his skill, to reach a chosen point"


  He is a representation of humanity - humanity's pride in its importance and ability. Thinks he controls where he is going despite being led by nature. Deceived into a sense of control, but nature chose the point as a destination where he would be humbled. This has the larger suggestion that it is only when mankind tries to work against nature that it becomes arduous and

  laborious.
• "Like a living thing, strode after me."


  Use of simile here could imply that the speaker is now choosing to personify nature but to above his level; as something other-worldly. The verb "strode" is very bold and implies a lot of strength, demonstrating the power of the mountain.