🚣🏻♂️ extract from, the prelude Flashcards
Who is the poet of Extract from, The Prelude?
William Wordsworth
Summary of Extract from, The Prelude
Wordsworth’s childhood memory of stealing a boat and rowing out onto the lake. He watches the ripples as he easily rows while focusing on a fixed point. Then starts to see the mountain grow bigger than he thought it was, and realizes the immensity of the mountain and nature. He is scared and starts to row back to the shore, and he is haunted by the event for days after. Has changed on how he views nature and how views humanity
5 key quotes in Extract from, The Prelude
1) ‘(led by her)’ & ‘Leaving behind her still’
- Personification: can be considered an allusion to the idea of Mother Nature, and nature can be seen as female in that it is responsible for the feminine task of creating, sustaining, and nurturing life - just as a mother does. Wordsworth is able to contrast the role of a human - whilst women nurture a single child; nature nurtures an entire planet thus demonstrating its superior power
2) ‘It was an act of stealth / And troubled pleasure’
- ‘stealth’: connotations of sly, furtive, surreptitious. No doubt that the action is morally wrong, but the poet doesn’t seem to be worried and is selfish by taking what he wants -> pride of man and feeling dominant. the persona is in control of the boat
- ‘troubled pleasure’: Oxymoronic phrase shows he knows he has no right to be stealing the boat but feels entitled to enjoy nature and arrogance of believing he was in control
3) ‘Proud of his skill, to reach a chosen point’
- Arrogant and thinks he controls where he is going despite being led by nature. Deceived into a sense of control, but nature chose the point as a destination where he would be humbled. This suggests that it is only when mankind tries to work against nature that it becomes arduous.
4) ‘The horizon’s utmost boundary’
- “end point” he thinks that the ‘craggy ridge’ is the much higher cliff face -> true shock and realization
- Metaphor of the pride of man, but realize that there is so much more to this world, how minute and unimportant human life is when contrasted to the vast array and the nature
5) ‘There hung a darkness, call it solitude / Or blank desertion’
- He has realized his own ignorance, seemingly he is in the dark and has limited understanding of the extent and power of nature
- He is alone and has realized his insignificance in the face of nature
Context for Extract from, The Prelude
HIS CHILDHOOD
- Parents died in his early teens
- Had a bad relationship with relatives because they treated him badly
- So he avoided them by spending time in the Lake District -> deep affection
ROMANTIC MOVEMENT
- Enlightenment period - writer wanted to reject the cold unemotional rationalism of the Enlightenment and instead use a more emotional and subjective view of the world. They looked to the beauty of nature and past life in order to protest against the changing face of the world which was happening due to industrialization. Used everyday language to make poems accessible to all. Wordsworth wished to write literature which challenged people’s preconceptions and viewpoints at the time
Form and structure of Extract from, The Prelude
EPIC POEM
- Speaker tells a long story about heroic acts and adventures of one main hero
- Covers an entire lifetime but the major event of the poem can be seen as the spiritual growth of the poet
- Nature is personified as the hero -> awaking understanding of the power of nature can be seen as such as important moment to the poet
BLANK VERSE
- No rhyme scheme
- Iambic pentameter (10 syllables) - keep a constant rhythm which to contrast the revelatory events which occur to the young man in this section of the poem
ONE LONG VERSE
- Reader is overwhelmed by the immensity of the poem, left breathless - empathizes with his overwhelming experience with nature
Key themes in Extract from, The Prelude
- Power of nature
- Criticises the arrogance of human assumption of power when nature is superior
- It is not nature that he is afraid of, but of the realisation of his own ignorance and insignificance (discovers himself and his role in the world)
Poems to compare of Extract from, The Prelude
OZYMANDIAS
- S: Nature more powerful than mankind, human power is intrinsically weak, pride
- D: Ozy power is conveyed through the symbolism of the desert and time, Prelude is the overwhelming power of nature leads to the speaker’s loss of eloquence and how he becomes unable to define his world
KAMIKAZE
- S: Both speakers are forced to reconsider their perspective on nature
- D: Prelude is man vs nature. Kami is patriotism vs nature
STORM ON THE ISLAND
- S: Both show nature as powerful, SOTI is due to the violence of nature, Prelude is due to the extent and size of nature. Both speakers discovers truths about the world through their encounters with nature
- D: SOTI is physical and being attacked by nature, while Prelude is psychological (nature is inciting fear and redefining their view of the world)
EXPOSURE
- S: Nature is an inescapable force, overwhelming influence of nature causing them to realize their own insignificance
- D: Prelude shows nature as expanse but Exposure shows nature’s power as violent
