The Prelude

Introduction

The Prelude was not published until shortly after William Wordsworth's death in 1850 (Bloom, 13). Wordsworth strongly advocated the use of poetry for the expression of individual emotions and insights. The Prelude contains many fine passages that illustrate the clarity and force of his use of language to provide both a precise description of nature and a grasp of its meaning. Although the poem contains long prosaic stretches, it also conveys a sense of the calm beauty and power of nature that distinguishes Wordsworth's verse (Wordsworth, pp. 59).

Discussion

The work begins with an account of the poet's childhood in the English Lake District. With many digressions addressed to nature and its power, wisdom, and infusing spirit, the poet describes the influence of nature on his solitary childhood. Some of the sense of awe and pleasure that he found in nature, as well as some of his clearest and most penetrating uses of diction, is evident in the passage in which he describes how he found a boat in a cave, unchained the boat, and rowed out into the center of a lake

The image of the peak is invested with such simplicity and power that it is transformed into a force conveying both terror and beauty to the guilty boy who has stolen a ride in a boat.The poet speaks of his youthful love of freedom and liberty, which he enjoyed in rambles through the woods and on mountain paths where he did not feel fettered by the claims of society and schoolwork. He makes sure to reassure the reader, however, that he was outwardly docile and obedient, keeping his rebellion and sense of freedom in the realm of the spirit. This combination of outward calm and inward rebellion helps explain Wordsworth's ability to control highly individualistic thought in calm, dignified, unostentatious verse forms and diction. Wordsworth does not use the speech of the common people; indeed, his speech is often abstract, speculative, and pervaded with a sense of the mystery and meaning of nature. At its best, however, Wordsworth's diction has a dignity and calm control, a lack of pretense, through which the force of his inner meaning gently radiates (Drabble, 23).

Wordsworth describes his journey through Cambridge, telling of experiences there and discussing the fact that he neither was nor cared to be a scholar. Despite his studies, he continues to concentrate inwardly on the spirit of things, the power of nature, and the impetus nature gives to his feelings. At this point, Wordsworth begins to speculate on the differences between reason and emotion or passion, equating reason with scholars and emotion with his own apprehension of the world of nature:

“But all the meditations of mankind,Yea, all the adamantine holds of truthBy reason built, or passion, which itselfIs highest reason in a soul sublime.” (Wordsworth, 59)

Throughout the poem, Wordsworth makes the distinction between reason and passion, and he attributes an ultimate sterility to the quality of reason while glorifying the element of passion or imagination.

He describes how, dissatisfied with life ...