Extract from Wordsworth's 'The Prelude'. Analysis for GCSE Eng Lit, Edexcel Conflict Anthology скачать в хорошем качестве

Extract from Wordsworth's 'The Prelude'. Analysis for GCSE Eng Lit, Edexcel Conflict Anthology

Summary of Key Points Context Wordsworth, with Coleridge, founded Romanticism. (Blake and Byron are the two other romantic poets in the anthology) The romantics worshiped nature - Wordsworth's pantheist philosophy was that God is not a separate being but dwells in nature - in mountains, skies, in people. In this philosophy there are no hierarchies; the whole of nature is divine. Wordsworth worked on 'The Prelude' for most of his writing life - it was published months after his death by his sister. Written in 14 autobiographical 'books', it charts the poet's spiritual growth and journey from child to poet. Wordsworth describes 'spots of time' - moments which had a profound impact on his development, and this extract describes one such moment in time. It's a defining moment remembered all of his life. Structure The Prelude is an epic but not a conventional one - it tells the story of a private individual rather than a hero. The first book, 'Childhood and Schooltime' from which this extract is taken immediately signals that Wordsworth's epic isn't traditional. it is written in blank verse and the rhythm is slow and sedate. The sequence of ideas is simple: a boy 'steals' a boat and rows out into a lake one summer's evening. A huge peak moves into view and he is terrified by its presence. He races home and is haunted by the experience for days afterwards. Point of View An autobiographical work, ' The Prelude' is written in the first person and the past tense. The language is conversational - Wordsworth said that he wanted to use the language of ordinary people in his poetry, not the remote, heightened language of classical poets. The voice is also full of feeling. Wordsworth described poetry as the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings." Imagery The imagery in the opening is comforting - the boat has a 'home' and nature is personified as an ally; the poet was "led by her". its beauty is emphasized - the lake is 'glittering' and 'sparkling' in the moonlight. The boat is also personified - almost as the boy's friend. So he is alone but not isolated. A sense of quiet foreboding is evident even in the opening though. The boy's troubled conscience - he took the boat in 'stealth' - means that this is a 'troubled pleasure'. The 'voice of mountain echoes' is also unsettling. In the next stage of the narrative, the boy intent on an 'unswerving line' fixes his eyes on a ridge. Whilst the boat moves 'like a swan' in one simile, Wordsworth also refers to it as 'elfin' evoking a sense of the mystical. Suddenly the boy's perspective and the 'Huge peak, black and huge' appears. This is a terrifying presence that seems to grow. Again it is personified but this time as a foe which 'strode after me'. There is a sense of rising panic as the boy 'struck and struck' his oars. He is 'trembling'. For days later he can't shake off an image of the threatening peak and he can no longer see the beauty of nature. The grass is no longer green. The child is oppressed by a 'sense of unknown modes of being.' His dreams too are haunted by the dark presence of the mountain. Themes Nature's power is a key theme - humanity doesn't have authority over nature. The boy has become acutely conscious of his insignificance within a vast universe which threatened to swallow him up. Isolation is another key theme - at first the boy enjoys his solitary adventure but by the end of the episode he feels utterly deserted - alone in the world with his fear and dread. Pantheism is not necessarily a comforting philosophy. For Wordsworth, at this stage in life (he became more conservative as an older man) there is no benevolent God looking after him, no Heaven waiting at the end of life. We are part of nature but also alone. This poem therefore explores some fundamental questions about the nature of existence and God. It is widely regarded as one of the greatest, most important ever written in English.