the prelude - stealing the boat

Question 1

what is it about

Answer 1

• the narrator unites a boat and takes it out on the lake. the evening is beautiful and the narrator feels relaxed and at one with the world.
• the narrator heads for a mountain appears on the horizon, but is scared when the mountain appears to rear its head and over power him. he rows frantically back to the safety of the willow tree with a knew found respect for nature.

Question 2

form, structure and context

Answer 2

• the poem is one long stanza. there are very few brakes which give it a stream of consciousness fell, it is unhampered by any strict rules.
• the whole poem is written in unrhymed iambic pentameter, except for line 15, Wordsworth writes about boundaries and then breaks them.
• the first part assumes a light, carefree tone. this changes to a darker, more sinister tone when the mountain intimidates the narrator . finally he becomes pensive as he reflects on his experience.
• Wordsworth was a romantic poet, a style in art, and writing which encouraged poets to be expressive. romanticism came to be a new way viewing man and his relationship to his environment.

Question 3

key quotes

Answer 3

• it was an act of stealth … of troubled pleasure
• small circles glittering idly in the moon
• with an unswerving line, i fixed my view
• a huge peak, black and huge
• upreared its head… towered after me
• the grim shapes towered up
• o’er my thoughts, there hung a darkness
• troubled to my dreams
• huge and mighty forms, that do not live like living men

Question 4

language and themes

Answer 4

• the poem charts the spirtiual growth of the poet, coming to the terms with who he is and his place in the world
• the mountain and the boat are both personified
• nature is conveying intentionally as serene and beautiful but transforms into something overly menacing asserting its authority and power over humanity.
• Wordsworth describes the prelude as a Gothic cathedral, this section being the antechaple which allows the reader to gain access to the heart of the structure.

Question 5

What poems can you do a comparison with the power of nature, fear and individual experiences in

Answer 5

• exposure
• storm on the island
• remains