Extract from, The Prelude analysis

Question 1

“A huge peak, black and huge […] upreared its head”

Answer 1

• Change of pronoun from ‘her’ to ‘it’ highlights the boys shock compared to the arrogance and pride at the beginning of the poem, it also presents nature as something monstrous and disconnected from the human world
• Enjambment delays the readers revelation of the cliff, similar to the boys, emphasising the tension and fear experienced
• Repetition of the adjective ‘huge’ reinforces how the poets ambitious vocabulary has deserted the poet in awe and fear of the sublime, almost like the reminiscences of a nightmare

Question 2

“No familiar shapes, no pleasant images of trees […] no colours of greenfield”

Answer 2

• Repetition of ‘no’ suggests how his pride has vanished, as he no longer feels confidence in what he knows
• Semantic field of solitude juxtaposed with the visual and natural imagery used creates a contrast of the beauty of nature before the boy’s realisation. It emphasises the astounding effects the sublime had on him, which Wordsworth included due to being inspired by romanticism, and thus he was interested in aspects of the environment that elicit admiration and fear

Question 3

“My boat went heaving through the water like a swan”

Answer 3

• Simile reflects the boy’s skilful and graceful mastery over the boat and natural world embodied by the lake. however, he underestimates the true power of nature
• Present participle reinforces the sense of vigour and force, compared the the present participles used in the rest of the poem used to describe the lake as ‘glittering’ and ‘sparkling’ which could reflect how he’s starting to realise the true power of nature as it lulls him into a false sense of security, perhaps to teach him a lesson