excerpt from the prelude Flashcards
what are the themes of excerpt from the prelude?
power, nature, love, time, place, man and death
“twilight blaz’d,”
Light imagery – showing that it was early evening and suggesting that it was a beautiful time of day.
“It was a time of rapture: clear and loud”
Emotive language – showing how happy he was at this point.
“hiss’d along the polish’d ice,”
Verb – showing how fast he and his friends were skating and how free they were as a result.
“The Pack loud bellowing,”
Metaphor – could be the hunting of animals in the wood or the sound of the boys playing on the ice sounding like a pack of animals.
“the precipices rang aloud,”
Personification – of the hills suggesting a sense of danger or awe of the vastness of the area.
“The orange sky of evening died away.”
Imagery – linked to the beauty of the sky as evening faded.
“The orange sky of evening died away.”
Imagery – linked to the beauty of the sky as evening faded.
what is excerpt from the prelude about?
This excerpt, taken from a much longer poem, is written from the perspective of an adult looking back on his childhood nostalgically. They recall a winter’s evening when they were ice-skating on a frozen lake with friends. They are called home, but ignore the summons as they are
having so much fun and continue their wild game of chase across the ice. At then end, the narrator reflects on how innocent and connected to nature they were, but as an adult how they have changed and are more strongly aware of the darker and more dangerous aspects of the world and
nature as they have matured.
