Language

• "led by her"

  • Nature is personified as a female could symbolise connection he feels as well as feminine qualities he associates with nature - caring, giver of life
• "straight I unloosed her chain"

  • "straight" - he didn't think he just did it - he feels comfortable OR confident
  • He feels he is journeying into nature - chain could symbolise him setting himself free to take a journey
  • Chain connotes something dangerous/imprisoned - associated with idea he is letting something free - gives poem feeling of growth/development

  -> can suggest Prelude is metaphor for positive experiences OR suggests that character is reckless and poem contains warning about not thinking about actions

  • Lines after this is show of ego by poet - arrogance - "knows all"
• "glittering idly"

  • Creates idyllic and beautiful natural imagery - semantic field of peacefulness
• "she was an elfin pinnance; lustily"

  • Pinnance - small boat - he feels dwarfed by nature and starts to see how grand nature is
  • Lustily - suggests he desires nature and knowledge, he is overwhelmed with passion to connect to it
• • Constantly relates nature to living things (like a swan) to try and relate to it - we can never fully understand nature
• "the horizons bound, a huge peak, black and huge"

  • Volta - turning point
  • More dark and dangerous language
  • Peak is personified "with a purpose of its own" - to intimidate and make human feel small - assert dominance and seem more aggressive
• "stars"

  • Stars symbolise hope
  • Biblical allusion - led people to Baby Jesus - suggests he felt lost and hopeless
• • From line 25-30, semantic field or power and dominance
• "the meadows homeward went, in grave and serious mood"

  • Meadows are usually peaceful which is juxtaposed with a grave and serious mood
  • Enjambment after grave shows how serious the change of tone is
  • Adjectives suggest his troubled state of mind
• "that do not live like living men"

  • Simile shows the immortality of nature and comparative weakness and mortality of man
• "trouble"

  • At the end
  • Echoes troubled pleasure at start to show complete change of his spiritual journey