*The Prelude* - William Wordsworth

Question 1

Context Prelude:

Answer 1

William Wordsworth
Romantic poet
born in Lake district - influenced his writing
Mother and Father died when he was young
Poem is part of bigger ‘epic’ poem

Question 2

structure Prelude

Answer 2

blank verse - freedom of childhood.

Question 3

‘i heeded not

Answer 3

the summons’ - image of ignoring rules as a child - freedom. ignoring nature’s signs aswell.

Question 4

‘it was a time

Answer 4

of rapture: clear and loud’ - obvious to him that childhood is much better than adulthood

Question 5

‘like an untir’d horse

Answer 5

that cares not for his home’ - home as a symbol of adulthood. untir’d depicting the simplicity of children. enjambment shows his wish for the continuation of childhood

Question 6

‘the pack loud bellowing,

Answer 6

and the hunted hare’ - ‘pack’ - showing the unity during childhood. metaphor for his childhood being hunted

Question 7

semantic field of sadness:

Answer 7

‘icy crag’ ‘distant hills’ ‘leafless trees’ - towards the end of the poem, shift in tone - nature as a symbol of time changing. adulthood as sad

Question 8

‘the stars eastward were

Answer 8

sparkling clear, and in the west the orange sky of evening died away’ - comparison between different sides - one of childhood and one of adulthood. ends on sombre note of ‘died away’ as if moving into adulthood is as bad as death.

Question 9

‘melancholy

Answer 9

not unnoticed’ - inevitability of time passing