Extract from, The Prelude - William Wordsworth (1770 - 1850)

CONTEXT

• Part of a long autobiographical poem (The Prelude), in which Wordsworth reflected upon his development as a child into a poet.
• As a Romantic poet, Wordsworth valued nature and saw it as powerful; he also valued the power of the human imagination - which is clearly evident in this poem.
• Nature is beautiful but can also be menacing.

One summer evening (led by her) I found

A little boat tied to a willow tree

Within a rocky cove, its usual home.

Straight I unloosed her chain, and stepping in

Pushed from the shore. It was an act of stealth

And troubled pleasure, nor without the voice

Of mountain-echoes did my boat move on;

Leaving behind her still, on either side,

Small circles glittering idly in the moon,

Until they melted all into one track

Of sparkling light. But now, like one who rows,

Proud of his skill, to reach a chosen point

With an unswerving line, I fixed my view

Upon the summit of a craggy ridge,

The horizon's utmost boundary; far above

Was nothing but the stars and the grey sky.

She was an elfin pinnace; lustily

I dipped my oars into the silent lake,

And, as I rose upon the stroke, my boat

Went heaving through the water like a swan;

When, from behind that craggy steep till then

The horizon's bound, a huge peak, black and huge,

As if with voluntary power instinct,

Upreared its head. I struck and struck again,

And growing still in stature the grim shape

Towered up between me and the stars, and still,

For so it seemed, with purpose of its own

And measured motion like a living thing,

Strode after me. With trembling oars I turned,

And through the silent water stole my way

Back to the covert if the willow tree;

There in her mooring-place I left my bark, -

And through the meadows homeward went, in grave

And serious mood; but after I had seen

That spectacle, for many days, my brain

Worked with a dim and undetermined sense

Of unknown modes of being; o'er my thoughts

There hung a darkness, call it solitude

Or blank desertion. No familiar shapes

Remained, no pleasant images of trees,

Of sea or sky, no colours of green fields;

But huge and mighty forms, that do not live

Like living men, moved slowly through the mind

By day, and were a trouble to my dreams.

"Small circles glittering idly in the moon," - [nature is beautiful], sibilance creates a gentle watery sound, terminal caesura helps us to hear the rhythm of the boat.

"a huge peak, black and huge,/ As if with voluntary power instinct,/ Upreared its head." - by personifying the mountain, Wordsworth makes it more intimidating towards the audience.

"the grim shape/ Towered up between me and the stars" - Towered, starting with a trochee sounds like it's rising fast and disrupts the natural iambic rhythm which creates panic. Between...stars, obtrusive - getting in the way of him and God. The stars, light, heaven = positivity.

"With trembling oars I turned,/ And through the silent water stole my way." - stole, shows how guilty he feels about stealing the boat. Trembling, both him and the boat are trembling, scared.