storm on the island and the prelude

Introduction

• Nature as vast uncontrollable force that both inspires awe and creates fear

• Wordsworth- personal, spiritual journey, beautiful landscape can be source of profound psychological disturbance

• Heaney- nature as relentless, almost militaristic, threatening entire community with invisible, unpredictable force

• Both expose fragility of human power in face of natures dominance

  • Wordsworths portrayal is reflective and philisopgocal

  • Heaney is urgent and physical

• Both suggest natures true power not only lies in physical force but ability to reshape human perception and identity

Point 1

Both the prelude and storm on the island present nature as an overwhelming force that not only dominates the physical world but also invades and reshapes human consciousness

• ‘A trouble to my dreams’

  • power invades speakers subconscious, transcends mankind- not bound by time

  • Long term impact of nature- humbling and haunting

• ‘We are bombarded by the empty air’

  • Unpredictability of nature, powerful, damaging, misleading

  • ‘Bombarded’-violent, compared to war

Point 2

Both Wordsworth and Heaney use vivid imagery and structural shifts to explore humanity’s misplaced confidence and fragile illusion of control in the face of natural forces

• ‘Troubled pleasure’ ‘proud of his skill’

  • believed he was in control, arrogant, oxymoronic, represents humanities pride

• ‘Upreared its head. I struck and struck again’

  • power of nature and ultimate control revealed

• ‘Wizened earth has never troubled us’

  • humans’ mistaken sense of security

• ‘Leaves and branches can raise a tragic chorus’

  • how nature quickly turns threatening

Point 3

In the Prelude and storm on the island, the poets suggest that natures true power lies not just in its physical force, but its ability to evoke deep emotional and psychological fear, permanently altering human perception

• ‘With trembling oars i turned’

  • immediate physical reaction of fear

• ‘Huge and mighty forms, that do not live like living men’

  • awe and terror at spiritual, unknowable aspect

• ‘Spits like a tame cat turned savage’

  • something familiar becomes terrifying

• ‘’Strange it is a huge nothing we fear’

  • most powerful fear is of unknown forces in nature