The prelude

• Wordsworth


  Romantic poet, but anchored in nature
• succession of "I"


  creates a flow like the boat moving on the lake
• "troubled pleasure"


  Oxymoron ~ hints at the narrators guilt
• "glittering idly"


  nature's beauty
• "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 power of nature
• ""unswerving line"


  - man and nature unite with humanity being the dominant power ~ enabling him to manipulate water to his benefit and control journey (rowing)
• "elf pinnace"


  - fairy boat, magical, otherworldly ~ not threatening (yet)
• "like a swan"


  - simile shows that he's confident and in control

  - not everything is as it seems ~ swan works hard beneath surface
• "when"


  volta, emphasised first word.
• "A huge peak, black and huge"


  - begins stuttering and loses lavish vocabulary

  - even most intelligent people are left provincial in comparison to nature.
• "upreared its head... struck and struck"


  - threatening, violent, overpowering

  - personification contrasts previous beauty
• "stars...still...so...seemed"


  sibilance creates sinister mood
• "purpose of its own... measured motion... strode after me"


  - mountain is calm, power & in control (swapped) ~ contrasts mans fear

  - put humanity in its (inferior) place
• "stole" & "covert"


  -afraid & guilty, wants to hide away ~ intruded on nature
• "grave"


  reminder of his own mortality
• repetition of "and"


  creates suspense and reflects his franticness
• "dim... undetermined... unknown"


  vague lang. ~ doesn't understand, struggling to describe
• "No pleasant images of trees, of sea or sky"


  The narrator no longer thinks of nature in terms of pretty images - he's learnt there's more to it than that.
• "huge and mighty forms"


  powerful, can influence/change lives
• "trouble to my dreams"


  - Unsettling image

  - Helps us to empathise with him

  - Huge contrast to the tone and mood at the start.