Extract from the Prelude

Question 1

Who wrote extract from the Prelude?

Answer 1

William Wordsworth

Question 2

What type of poet was he?

Answer 2

English Romantic poet

Question 3

Was he poet laureate?

Answer 3

Yes from 1843

Question 4

What type of poem is it? How many lines is the whole thing?

Answer 4

An autobiographical poem. 8000 lines (he didn’t manage to finish it before he died)

Question 5

What does the poem symbolise?

Answer 5

It symbolises an internal conflict taking place in the mind and emotions of the speaker.

Question 6

What does the poem focus on man’s relationship with?

Answer 6

Nature and the natural world and how that provides us with a deeper understanding of ourselves

Question 7

What is the poem a metaphor for?

Answer 7

The transforming power of nature on relatively insignificant humans

Question 8

What is this part of the poem known as? (as in the something episode)

Answer 8

The boat stealing episode

Question 9

What is the poem actually about/describing?

Answer 9

Wordsworth steals a boat as a child and takes it out on the water to enjoy nature but his arrogance is shut down as he was faced with a large mountain causing him to turn back (power of nature)

Question 10

What is/are the structure/structural techniques of the poem?

Answer 10

Written in Blank verse (does not rhyme). But also in iambic pentameter (unrhymed lines of 5 stressed syllables)

Question 11

What are the key 3 themes?

Answer 11

Power of nature, Internal conflict/fear, Identity

Question 12

‘a ____ peak, _____ and huge’

Answer 12

‘a huge peak black and huge’
- Volta (shift in change of thought) marks shift in tone as he becomes more scared
- He was cocky over nature but now isn’t
- Plosives to emphasise natures dominance
- Revelation of natures true power puts him speechless = repeated adjective ‘huge’
- Mountain = metaphor for trauma (all the deaths he’s experienced). He’s so affected by something that can’t harm him = conflict between emotion and reason

Question 13

What impactful deaths did Wordsworth experience

Answer 13

Death of both parents young, and then his two children

Question 14

‘_____ circles __________ idly in the ____’

Answer 14

‘small circles glittering idly in the moon’
- Vivid imagery of the peace of nature
- Power nature has to display serenity
-Soft verb ‘glittering’ = image of calmness and beauty
- Manichean symbolism (sorts things into good and evil) contrasts light and dark - foreshadows danger to come