Extract From 'The Prelude' (Boat Stealing)

Question 1

Boat Stealing Context - Wordsworth

Answer 1

Nature became a mother figure to Wordsworth as he lost his parents from a young age and was split up from his sister

Question 2

Boat Stealing : Themes

Answer 2

Nature has the power to inspire and change people
Nature has the power to terrify
Internal Conflict: guilt, loss of innocence

Question 3

Boat Stealing : First line quote

Answer 3

One summer Evening (led by her)
(‘her’ could refer to mother nature - context)
(female gender, beautiful)

Question 4

Boat Stealing : an act of quote

Answer 4

‘It was an act of stealth
And troubled pleasure’
- oxymoron, pleasurable at the time but troubles him looking back on it he is guilty and knows it - juxtaposed adjective and noun

Question 5

Boat Stealing : Proud rower quote

Answer 5

'like one who rows, 
Proud of his skill'
The young poet is in control of nature - he has the power 
or
the poets hubris and overconfidence

Question 6

Boat Stealing : ‘a huge peak’ quote

Answer 6

‘A huge peak, black and huge’
repetition of simple adjectives gives the effect that the poet is speechless, lost for words at the sheer size and intimidation of nature
Retrospective Narration - young Wordsworth would not have the words to describe the peak

Question 7

Boat Stealing : Strokes through the water (‘Heaving through the water’ & ‘I struck and struck again’ & ‘Trembling oars’)

Answer 7

My boat went heaving through the water like a swan; - (“heaving” suggests violent movement, disturbing nature)
contrast to the later
I struck and struck again
an act of panic, uncontrolled - he has lost control and now nature is in power
Contrast to the later
‘With trembling oars I turned’
trembling is a show of fear - TERROR

Question 8

Boat Stealing : ‘Towered up between’ quote

Answer 8

‘Towered up between me and the stars’

blocking him off from the peaceful side of nature - overwhelming

Question 9

Boat Stealing : O’er my thoughts quote

Answer 9

O’er my thoughts there hung a darkness

darkness could be an absence - loss of innocence, new awareness of the true nature of nature

Question 10

Boat Stealing : Call it… quote

Answer 10

Call it solitude
Or blank desertion
he feels isolated without this innocent mother figure nature used to be

Question 11

Boat Stealing : No familiar quote

Answer 11

No familiar shapes
Remained, no pleasant images of trees
Of sea or sky, no colours of green fields
repetition of “no” demonstrates how he has a new perspective on the world and has lost some enjoyment of the peaceful, ignorant bliss of the world he had
(also links to context - The Growth of a Poet’s Mind)

Question 12

Boat Stealing : Juxtaposition

Answer 12

juxtaposing the beauty of nature and the dark power it holds - “voice of mountain echoes” juxtaposed to “huge and mighty forms”
(“echoes” is a soft word demonstrating the stillness and calmness of nature)

Question 13

Boat stealing : Loss of gender

Answer 13

Goes from “led by HER” to “upreared ITS head”

loss of gender reveals how he has been haunted by this event and so nature loses its beauty