Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
An extract from the prelude - Coggle Diagram
An extract from the prelude
Context and poets intentions
William Wordsworth was born in 1770 in the lake district where he grew up.
William Wordsworth was fascinated by the natural world and this provided much inspiration for the poem.
He believed that nature made him a better person.
Central ideas
How nature can be consider a form of moral guidance.
In the poem a boy steals a boat and nature makes him return the boat, the fact that he did wrong haunts the boy and so nature acts as a form of moral guidance.
Psychology of a young boy
He steals a boat and is excited by what adventures it will provide, but when he sees the huge peak his excitement turns to guilt.
Power of nature
Personification and imagery
Personification of nature
He shows nature as kind and benevolent even those it is very powerful, this is evident through the line "one summer evening (led by her)", the verb "led" implies kindness and gentleness.
He reinforces the idea that nature is gentle and kind as he says "I unloosed her chain, and stepping in pushed from the shore"
He also personifies nature as powerful with the use of the "huge peak, black and huge" this creates a feeling of power over humans as this portrays the mountain as a terrifying unknown.
"For so it seemed, with a purpose of its own" this personifies the mountains and suggests it moving to attack and it is moving of its own freewill.
Imagery
Imagery is used to create a haunting effect of nature "There hung a darkness", this creates a feeling of the unknown.
Imagery at the start is used to create pictures of beauty with the reference to the "small circles glittering idly in the moon", this creates a scene of beauty and serenity which is perfect to contrast with the horror of nature that comes up later.
Themes
A sense of foreboding is created from the start with contrasting phrases such as "troubled pleasure", this suggests that the narrator feels some sort of guilt for there actions and this could foreshadow events later on.
Repetition of "I struck and struck again" shows the narrators fear as it shows his desperation to get out of the situation he is in and return home. This also uses violent language showing the narrators fight against nature which is doomed to fail.
There are hints of confidence in the first section of the poem "Proud skill", this could hint to the relationship that humans hold with nature believing them to be more powerful and skillful than the natural world.
However at the end of the extract there is more use of uncertain language as shown by "and were a trouble to my dreams", this shows the narrator can't put into words truly how the event shaped only being able to say it troubled his dreams.
Key quotations
One evening led by her
and were a trouble to my dreams
there hung a darkness
I struck and struck again
small circles glittering idly in the moon
Troubled pleasure
A huge peak, black and huge
Key comparisons
Power of nature
Exposure
Storm on the island
Ozymandias
Powerful, unpleasant and significant experiences
Storm on the island
Exposure
London
Kamikaze
Remains
War photographer