the extract from the prelude

Question 1

“one summer evening (led by her) I found a little boat tied to a willow tree”

Answer 1

• “her”, nature is personified
• the writer is not responsible for stealing the boat, he has been seduced by nature

Question 2

“the horizon’s upmost boundary; far above was nothing but the stars and the grey sky”

Answer 2

• “horizons upmost boundary”, suggests boundaries are illusions, much like a boundary on a horizon is an illusion
• “stars and grey sky”, suggests unlimited possibility, shows the writer’s aspiration

Question 3

“she was an elfin pinnace”

Answer 3

• “pinnace”, homophone, displays the theme of sexuality and temptation
• further displays how he is removing guilt from himself for stealing the boat

Question 4

“and growing still in stature, the frim shape towered up between me and the stars”

Answer 4

• “towered up between him and the stars”, the stars represented his freedom, the mountain blocks this view to make it feel as if wordsworth is being accused
• “towering”, personification, shows how domineering the mountain is

Question 5

“with a dim and undetermined sense of unknown modes of being”

Answer 5

• pantheism
• “unknown modes”, refers to god judging him for committing such an act
• contrasts with the idea of nature persuading him to steal the boat in the first place

Question 6

“but huge and mighty forms, that do not live like living men”

Answer 6

• “mighty forms”, suggests his copious guilt
• alternatively, could suggests that these “mighty forms” are his thoughts that “trouble” his dreams as they go against societies boundaries, hence the references to sexuality in his poem

Question 7

describe the form of the poem, the extract from the prelude

Answer 7

• written in one stanza, and is writing about freedom, therefore expressing the concept of freedom through the structure of the poem