William Wordsworth's The Prelude is a reflective poem, exploring the relationship between humanity and nature. This extract describes a young boy's experience of rowing a stolen boat. He initially feels excited and powerful, before being overwhelmed by the vastness of nature. The poet highlights themes of guilt, awe and the sublime by using vivid imagery to capture the speaker's changing emotions to emphasise the idea that nature shapes human experiences.
Sublime - implies that despite the beauty of nature, it can also be dangerous
Awe - a feeling of mixed fear, respect and wonder
Solitude - the quality or state of being isolated from society
Guilt - a feeling of responsibility for wrongdoing
Reflection - reminiscing on past experiences and their impact
William Wordsworth examines the concept of 'rapture' in the face of the awe-inspiring phenomena of nature and the physical world and explores how this pantheism can contribute to the development of a poet's mind and conscience.
According to Wordsworth, The Prelude is 'a poem on the growth of my own mind' with 'contrasting views on Man, Nature and Society'. He uses celestial imagery to magnify his won comparative self-confidence in the face of nature. In contrast, upon reaching the mountain the speaker becomes awestruck beyond all comprehension as to what it could be. The celestial image is now blocked out by the mountains. Stars are used for navigation, signifying there is no chance of man and nature co-existing. He uses the mountain to represent nature's power over man and captures the maturation of his adult mind.
Reveals that it was nature that led him to the boat. The boat becomes personified and the speaker imagines himself as chivalric, liberating what he has found from 'her chain'. He is confident, forceful, perhaps arrogant in his ability to take control.
Nature is presented here as beautiful. The speaker is lulled into a false sense of security; nature could never be a threat. 'Glittering' and 'sparkling' could be described as celestial. It is a heavenly vision, one that the speaker is comfortable with, and one that fuels his arrogance.
The adjective 'craggy' shatters the image of delicacy established earlier in the poem. This is the poem's volta, which lingers in the word 'when', reveals the dramatic change in the speaker's thoughts and emotions. Simple adjectives describe te mountain he sees. 'Huge' and 'black' contrast significantly to 'glittering' and 'sparkling'. This represents the speaker's confusion and bewilderment.
This makes the mountain sound animalistic, as if nature has been disturbed and is defending itself.
He is fearful of the power that nature has had over him. The 'covert' or cove could initially symbolise safety and security, yet it has been tainted by the man's actions and what he has seen.
The dreamlike imagery of the opening is replaced with a nightmarish view of nature. It creates an unsettling image to demonstrate how nature has scolded the speaker. There is disillusionment and disempowerment. The speaker has experience the untameable power of nature.
The choice of the epic poem form adds a sense of gravitas to what could be viewed as a mundane childhood memory.
Blank verse contributes to natural speech and spiritual growth.
Caesura shows how the relationship between man and nature is broken.