The Prelude Flashcards
Who wrote The Prelude?
William Wordsworth `
What were William Wordsworth’s life dates?
1770-1850
What is Wordsworth hailed as?
One of most influential Romantic poets
What literary era does Wordsworth’s work fit into?
Romanticisism
What was Wordsworth’s background?
Orphan at 5
4 siblings
unusually live w/ is sister in adulthood
Moved around different parts of English countryside
Spent lot of time in Lake District
Supported social change and French Revolution
Turn of the century:
became increasingly disenfranchised and right-wing
How did Wordsworth’s views change through the course of his life?
Became increasingly disenfranchised w/ politics after Napoleon took power
Political transformation:
increasingly right wing
When during Wordsworth’s life was The Prelude written?
Throughout-never finished
- -> almost like autobiographical diary
- ->never intended to be published?
What is the structure of The Prelude?
Iambic pentameter
Free verse
First person
=Personal, exciteable tone
What tone does the conversation connective ‘And’ at the start of the excerpt create?
Breathless, excited tone
What are the themes of The Prelude?
Childhood
Innocence
Joy
Nature
What does the use of the fricative adverb ‘frosty’ in the first line ‘And in the frosty season, when the sun’ create?
Audible, aural appeal
–>Reader can hear the crisp air and crunch of frost
Creates buccolic, nostalgic scene of cosy winter days
What does the alliteration in the second line ‘Was set, and visible for many a mile’ emphasise?
Never ending beauty of buccolic scene
What effect does the enjambered lines ‘I heeded not the summons- happy time/It was, indeed, for all of us;to me/it was a time of rapture’ suggest?
Suggests powerful emotions overflowing one another
–>Time of consuming joy
What is suggested by the enjambered simile ‘Proud and exulting, like an untir’d horse,/That cares not for his home…’?
LINK WITH CONTEXT
Connection of young narrator with nature
(TROPE OF ROMANTICISM)
and
Wordsworth’s childhood as orphan w/ four siblings
–>Found an escape/ happiness through this connection with nature?
What does the sibilant, onomatopoeic verb ‘hiss’d’ in line 10 accentuate?
Speed of the skating
–>Joy of children celebrating turning of the seasons
What do the references to nature in lines 13-14 such as ‘The Pack loud bellowing’ convey?
The fascination the children have with nature
How integrated it is into their imaginative games- despite harsh conditions
What does the unusual simile ‘Tinkled like iron’ in line 18 evoke?
Musical, onomatopoeic verb evokes sense of joyful innocence
-Paired w/ harsh noun conveys rush of overwhelming feelings that confuse the senses
What does the enjambered personification ‘…while the distant hills/Into the tumult sent an alien sound/OF melancholy, not unnoticed’ foreshadow?
LINK W/ CONTEXT
Emotions of adult reminiscing about past joy that is unreachable
- ->Could foreshadow political disenfranchisement that Wordsworth experienced towards the end of his life (following leadership of Napoleon)
- -> Lost his once childlike hope for social change/revolution
What does the vigorous verb ‘flew’ in line 14 metaphorically imply?
How does this affect the tone of the poem?
Excitement and youth of a child
-as they experience in hyperbolic manner
=CHILDLIKE TONE
How does The Prelude carry tropes of Romantic poetry?
Recognition of influence of senses
–>constant expression of joy
Sensuous imagery evokes sense of the sublime
What do the first 15 lines of The Prelude act as?
Joyful description of bucolic sense
>as Wordsworth reminiscises through a childlike perspective
What happens on line 15: ‘Meanwhile’
Signals end of excited playing
>invites melancholic tone to interrupt childish fun
What can link to The Prelude?
Death of a Naturalist
London
Living Space
