The Prelude (Wordsworth) – Quick Revision Notes

Brief Summary

  • Autobiographical episode: child steals a boat, rows on a Lake District lake, confronted by a vast mountain, retreats in fear.

  • Key journey: pride → awe → fear → lasting psychological change.

Context

  • William Wordsworth (1770-1850); Lake District childhood, orphaned, troubled upbringing.

  • Leading figure of Romanticism: reaction against ext{Industrialisation} and Enlightenment rationalism.

  • Supported early French Revolution; later disillusioned by violence.

  • The Prelude (14 books) was intended as prologue to the unfinished epic "The Recluse".

Romantic Movement

  • Values: emotion, nature, individual experience, simple language, critique of institutions.

  • Nature presented as spiritual guide and moral force.

Core Themes

  • ext{Man vs Nature} : human arrogance humbled by natural power.

  • Pride & Hubris: belief in control undermined.

  • Psychological Transformation: event reshapes perception and dreams.

  • Memory & Reflection: past event continually influences present self.

Structure & Form

  • Epic poem, single-stanza extract, iambic\ pentameter (blank verse).

  • Enjambment + lack of stanza breaks → breathless, overwhelming pace.

  • Cyclical journey: begins/ends at mooring; change is internal.

  • Parallelism in rowing: effortless outwards strokes vs strained return.

Language & Devices

  • Personification: nature = "her", "living thing" → conscious, powerful.

  • Similes/Metaphors: boat "like a swan"; mountain "like a living thing" heighten contrast.

  • Oxymoron "troubled pleasure" signals moral conflict.

  • Repetition of "huge" shows loss of articulate speech under awe.

  • Semantic fields: nature, power, darkness; shift from light/glittering to black/dark.

Key Quotations (trimmed)

  • "One summer evening (led by her) I found a little boat…"

  • "A huge peak, black and huge, upreared its head."

  • "With trembling oars I turned… in grave and serious mood."

  • "Huge and mighty forms… were a trouble to my dreams."

Comparative Links

  • Ozymandias: both show nature/time eclipsing human pride.

  • Storm on the Island: nature's power; psychological vs physical assault.

  • Kamikaze: reevaluation of duty vs natural beauty.