Prelude

Question 1

The prelude
Summary

Answer 1

The Prelude explores Wordsworth’s development into a poet, the power of nature, the disappointment of the French Revolution (which began in 1789), and various philosophical ideas about art and poetry.

Question 2

The prelude
Key quotations

Answer 2

One summer evening (led by her)”
“Straight I unloosed her chain”
“Small circles glittering idly in the moon, until they melted into a tack of light”
“She was an elfin pinnace; lustily I dipped my oars into the silent lake”
“When, from behind that craggy steep
“Upreared its head”

Question 3

The prelude
Poems that link to it

Answer 3

Ozymandias

Question 4

The prelude
Important contextual information

Answer 4

The poem centres on Wordsworth’s childhood memory in the Lake District where he steals a boat and rows it into the middle of a lake. A mountain by the lake grows far bigger than he thought it.