Key Quotes

• one summer evening (led by her)


  '(led by her)' unclear... led by the boat? led by nature- personification
• a little boat tied to a willow tree'

  starts with a happy, rural image. tranquil, calm and natural.
• act of stealth'


  knows what he is doing something wrong- hinting that something bad is going to happen.
• troubled pleasure'


  oxymoron, he is taking an exciting risk, knows what he is doing is and but it feels good
• glittering' 'sparkling light'


  beautiful imagery, non threatening, magical
• proud of his skill'


  arrogant, thinks he is bigger/ better than nature. contrast to how he feels at the end of the poem when he realises how powerful nature is.
• the horizons bound, a huge peak, black and huge'

  a mountain has hared, different language and tone, more scary and threatening
• upreared its head'


  personification, the mountain is overpowering him
• I struck and struck again and growing still on stature'


  as narrator rows away from the mountain, it starts so become bigger and bigger, he is living a nightmare
• trembling oars'


  personification, he has lost his confidence. his hubris has disapeared- by intimidation of nature. nature always wins it is powerful, overpowers arrogance and pride.
• back to the covert of the willow tree'


  wants to go back to comfort, what he knows. he wants protection.
• undetermined sense of unknown modes of being'

  vague language shows that the narrator doesn't understand what he has seen and is unable to describe it.
• no pleasant images of trees of sea or sky'

  'but huge mighty forms that do not live like living men


  everything he knew before is gone, incident with the mountain has emotionally shaken him- he will never see nature the same again.
• trouble to my dreams'


  unsettling image, it shows how affected he is. we empathise with him. huge contrast to the beginning of the poem.
• structure


  psychical structure- it starts peaceful and ends with darkness.
• form


  written in blank verse because it has regular iambic pentameter for its rhyme but it has no rhyme. Life has a pattern and rhythm and blank verse demonstrates how things can change

  first person narrative poem. sounds personal and describes a turning point in the poems life.