Excerpt from The Prelude - Context

Question 1

who wrote this poem?

Answer 1

william wordsworth

Question 2

when was this poem published?

Answer 2

• after his death in 1850

Question 3

william wordsworth

Answer 3

• 1770-1850
• an romantic english poet who lived in rural areas, e.g. the lake district

Question 4

how was wordsworth’s relationship with his family ?

Answer 4

• distant relationship with his father
• mother died when he was 7/8
• sent to boarding school
• lived with his maternal grandparents and uncle in rural Cumbria
• they didn’t get on
• he contemplated suicide

Question 5

how was wordsworth’s childhood?

Answer 5

• spent a LOT of time outdoors and believed nature could be like a parent/teacher
• loved to ice skate and learnt on a lake

Question 6

how long did ‘the prelude’ take to write?

Answer 6

• started writing it in his 20s
• never finished, even though it’s 14 books long
• took over 40 years

Question 7

‘the prelude’

Answer 7

• autobiographical
• focuses on wordsworth’s childhood and relationship with nature

Question 8

romanticism

Answer 8

• an artistic and intellectual movement that occurred between the late 18th and mid-19th century
• was a break from ‘the age of reason’, which valued logic, reason and structure
• instead, romanticism placed a greater emphasis in emotions and imagination

Question 9

what are characteristics of romanticism?

Answer 9

• personal responses and creative freedom over tradition
• the exploration of powerful emotions
• a focus on introspection and reflection
• an appreciation of beauty (in the natural world as well)
• the importance of imagination

Question 10

what’s the poem about?

Answer 10

• the excerpt is written by an adult who is looking back nostalgically on his childhood memories
• it begins on a winter evening when the narrator is playing outside. it’s getting dark, which is the time he’s supposed to go home, but he doesn’t because he’s having a good time. the narrator describes the fun he and his friends are having ice skating
• the adult narrator then reflects on nature and suggests that humans are distanced from it

Question 11

what themes are present in the poem?

Answer 11

• change and transformation
• nature
• sense of place