Extract From The Prelude Flashcards
“A little boat tied to a willow tree,”
Happy rural image
“It’s usual home,”
Nature seems familiar to him
“Straight I unloosed her chain,”
Narrator appears confident.
“Act of stealth,”
Knows he’s doing something wrong and is the first sign something isn’t right
“Troubled pleasure,”
Oxymoron hints at narrators guilt
“Proud of his skill,” “with an unswerving line,”
Narrator seems confident
“She was an elfin pinnace,”
Metaphor of a fairy boat makes the scene seem magical and otherworldly
“Like a swan,”
Natural simile shows he’s confident and in control
“When,”
Turning point (Volta) introduces a change in tone. The word is emphasised by being the start of line and by the caesura
“Upreared its head,”
Mountain personified. Ugly image in contrast to beautiful images earlier
“The grim shape towered up between me and the stars,”
Ugly image
Uses a repetition of sibilant sounds “stars,” “still,”
Creates a sinister mood
“Purpose of its own,” “Measured motion,” “Strode after me,”
Mountain is calm and in control. Contrasts to the readers fear
“Stole,” “Covert,”
He’s afraid and guilty and wants to hide away as he feels he’s intruded
“For many days,”
Impact was long lasting
“Of unknown modes of being,”
Vague language shows narrator doesn’t understand what he’s seen
“There hung a darkness, call it solitude,”
Narrator is left feeling alone and unsettled
“Trouble to my dreams,”
Unsettling image that helps create a huge contrast to the tone at the start
“No pleasant images of trees, of sea or sky no colours of green fields,”
Narrator no longer thinks of nature in terms of pretty images. SF of vagueness and absence (repetition of no) shows how this formative event has taken a superficial view of nature
“For many days,”
Impact was profound and had a long lasting
Use of blank verse (unrhymed verse in iambic pentameter)
Makes it sound serious and important
“Unloosed” “pushed” “proud” “unswerving”
Verbs and adjectives display his arrogant certainty
Semantic field of light and size “small” “glittering idly” “sparkling light”
Shows narrator feels dominant over passive nature and nature is superficially beautiful to him
“Heaving through the water lil a swan,”
Oxymoron foreshadows the change in tone
The active power shifts to nature
Purpose is bringing ww a message through of experience with the sublime
“But huge and mighty forms that do not live like living men,”
Final contrast signifies transition of perception
