The Prelude (1805)

The Prelude(1805) in its content of 13 books reveals itself as a poem of maturity. The overall gist og this poem that the author is finally out of captivity. To support this theme, the author states that he is coming home from the city wall's bondage. Because the Prelude can be interpreted in a philosophical way, "bondage" can be mental, physical, or emotional stress from city life. There is a clear and concise admiration displayed by the author in the first lines of this poem. The poem reads "there is a blessing in the gentle breeze that/ blows...and so fourth through the 5th line. He gives something as simple as a breeze human like qualities. This aspect is known as personification. His deep fascination with the when allows him to expound upon it in such a way that it comes to life right before the readers eyes on the page. Overall he is displaying his love for nature and its physical features.

As a result of being a free man in essence, the author then goes into a self evaluation of what he should do next. This comfort of freedom is foreign to him and he realizes that now he has some decisions to make. The poem takes a turn here when it switches from nature appreciation to curiosity of decision making. He is now a free man, and the possibility of what he can do is endless. This aspect made me revert to many prison shows on television. After being a prisoner for so long, one does not know what to do. They are so deeply embedded into being under captivity that they don't know how to live any other life other than that of a prisoner. And the author exemplifies these similar characteristics. He questions where he will reside and slumber?

1805

The Prelude of 1805 in Thirteen Books seems like a coming of age poem. In the poem, the speaker says that he is coming home from the city wall’s bondage, “A captive greets thee coming from a house| Of bondage, from you city’s walls set free”(Line 5). The main idea of this poem is that the speaker is finally out of bondage, whether that be physical or emotional hard times in the city life, and is about to experience the world beyond the city. The speaker’s child-like descriptions give this poem both an abstract and concrete quality.

In the first set of lines, the speaker is admiring the physical features of nature. The “gentle breeze that | blows from the green fields… seems half conscious of the joy it gives” (Lines 1-4) for instance, is a significant description because it shows the speaker’s observance and admiration of one of the simplest occurrences in nature, a breeze blowing. In addition, the speaker also notes that although this simple happening in nature can be admired, the act itself is one that brings him joy and happiness simply because it happens. This clear-cut description and admiration of nature is the first indicator of abstract qualities in this poem. Instead of just saying that the breeze is nice or feels good, the speaker takes four lines to admire it and ultimately personifies it to convey his shear observance and appreciation.

The speaker then goes on to note all of the options that are available to him and the decisions he now has to make since he is “free from bondage”. “Now I am free, enfranchised and at large” (Line 9) begins the transition of being thankful about nature’s simple pleasures to realizing all that he can do and appreciate now that he is free from the toils of harsh city life. Afterward, the speaker lists all of the questions that he is going over in his mind such as where to live and sleep (Lines 10-13) Asking these questions give the poem concrete qualities because he is actually considering this things realistically.

In line 14, the speaker again begins to personify earth; however, this time he is making a comparison to his personal situation, “The earth is all before me – with a heart joyous, nor scared at its own liberty”. This comparison illustrates that the speaker is trying to convince himself that the earth is not afraid of freedom so he should not be either. This is one of the most important parts of the poem because it emphasizes the wonders of nature both physically and emotionally and the freedom that it has to do what it wants when it wants. In realizing all of this, the speaker is beginning to understand the transformation that he will have to undergo as he sets out on a new life beyond the bondage of the city.

Optional Don Juan Blog Post

There is one special excerpt at the beginning of Don Juan that has caught my attention. Lord Byron seems to write endlessly about pleasure. Pleasure is....a mental state that humans or other animals aim to seek. Everybody strives to find pleasure, whether it be in woman like Juan, or in love like Julia. Byron states that "man is a strange animal" because of the endeavors we will go through just to find pleasure. In Don Juan, Juan has just laid with Julia, the wife of Don Alfonso. It is interesting how the two were seeking pleasure and acted immediately upon it rather than thinking about the consequences. Humans tend to do this often, thinking with their hearts rather than their minds.

A phrase that stuck out to me was  "Pleasure's a sin and sometimes Sin's a pleasure". This is very interesting not only because it is true, but the fact that we as humans forget this often. When we are young we are taught what is right and wrong, but as we grow older we tend to realize that some of the stuff we thought was wrong feels good. I don't know if its the rush we get from doing something bad or the actual effect of the sin, but it feels good, it is pleasure. Byron is claiming that choosing pleasure is a sin because to achieve this pleasure you must sin. Juan and Julia found pleasure in each other but at the cost of Julia cheating on her husband, committing adultery. Sinning can sometimes be a pleasure, but no matter the pleasure it usually doesn't measure up to the risks associated with it. For example, Julia may have slept with Juan for a night, but she risked her lasting marriage with Alfonso. Pleasure is a basic need in life, but how we obtain it separates us from the animals.

Maybe our life's goal is to obtain pleasure while we are alive, because few mortals know what the end will hold. The speaker tells the reader that even he does not know what to expect in the afterlife so during his time alive he wishes to seek out pleasure. Does pleasure exist in the afterlife?

A Prelude to Lunch

Shortly before lunchtime it dawned on me,
What I had never noticed before, that
Humble sandwich, the vessel by which life
Is transferred from the cow, the fowl, and the
Lowly chaff of wheat into God-hewn tract,
Hath a power to consecrate—if we
Have tongue to taste—even the dreariest
Workday afternoon. The mayo, mustard,
Savory meats and hearty garden plants
Have flavors in themselves that interact
With the passions of man’s palate, and spur
Mere taste to evolve, by process unclear,
Into the poet’s loftiest genius.

Based on Wordsworth’s Prelude, 1805 version, lines 278-296

Map of 19th-Century London

The Prelude 1805 (lines 230-273)

In these lines, Wordsworth expresses his desire to capture the beauty of everyday life in his writings. But at this point in his life, he sees it is wiser for him to wait to gain life experience before trying. Until then, he has to live like everyone else who doesn't share these aspirations, feeling stupid. He says that "humility and honesty" serve as a "cloak to a more subtle selfishness." In other words, he says he sadly must wait to write fully and suffer til he is ripe with age, but saying such things only elevates him. It's as though he's saying things - simple truths - to make us pity and admire him, and so humble and honest expressions come to self-serving ends. This realization is very introspective on Wordsworth's part. He gives us multiple layers to explore in his philosophical work: what he's saying, what he means, what he will mean, and who he is. He focuses largely on nature, but analyzes his writing and what it will be in the future, and then he delves into the effects of what he's saying on our view of him and his view of himself. He wants to have a simple eye but his human desires for possessions and power remain within him. They beat him down. He can see these cravings at work and how their satisfaction does nothing to slow the trip to the grave. Wordsworth seems to be emphasizing the pointlessness of succumbing to materialism. Clearly, he thinks there is something better to spend one's limited life on, such as enjoying each day, as the beginning of this set of lines points out.

Optional Blog Post

Wordsworth attempts to capture the importance of nature to daily life in Book 1. Within the first 30 or so lines Wordsworth speaks of nature in a way that allows the reader to understand the spirituality that can be grasped from the subtle things in nature. He begins by providing examples of these natural subtleties he is enjoying, explaining how it feels to be back in touch with nature instead of being caught in the hustle and bustle of civilization. While he doesn’t seem to be condemning city-life, he makes it clear that it cannot provide the same insightful teachings that nature can when more one on one with it. “escaped From the vast city, where I long had pined A discontented sojourner: now free” summarizes his relief to be away from the city and the freedom that can be felt from enjoying the outdoors and all that it provides. This idea of being free takes him through the next few lines of the poem in which he essentially explains that the world is his, and is asking where he will decide to live by wondering which piece of nature can coax him into settling there or what will point him in the direction he decides to go; a clear stream, wandering cloud, trackless field, something floating in the river, are some of the ways he predicts nature may show him the way. Wordsworth submits to us that this way of living is a great way to free oneself from responsibility and really unlock creativity and optimism that can be locked away by life. He understands this and recognizes his ability to grab this by the horns and take full advantage of the creative potential that is being provided. It is interesting to look at things through this epistemology that Wordsworth provides. How this relationship between man and nature can create such harmony and evoke such a spiritual response that can provide creativity and passion never felt before. Being bogged down by the daily grind of life can really take away a person’s ability to appreciate the subtleties of nature than can provide these uplifting feelings. Within the first few lines he mentions a breeze, once as a gentle breeze then as a soft breeze; this becomes a great example of something that can be very enjoyable when allowed the time to relish it. This lesson of nature and appreciating the subtleties of it is a great lesson that Wordsworth seems to be providing to readers in this book. Starting the beginning like he does then going on to provide examples and anecdotes from his life that show learning experiences of morality from nature.

The Prelude of 1805, Book First, Lines 1-30

The Prelude of 1805 is extremely long, so I would like to focus on Book First, Lines 1-30.

Lately in class we have been talking about whether Wordsworth intended for The Prelude to be philosophical or not. On the one hand, it seems Wordsworth is just describing his life experiences and going through his own thought process. On the other hand, some of Wordsworth's words seem very advise-like, almost as if he is explaining his philosophy of life. In my opinion, I believe The Prelude does have a philosophical context, and I believe Lines 1-30 shows this context through its story-telling and choice of words.

Lines 1-30 of the First Book seem like a story to me, with story-telling qualities. Wordsworth describes his enjoyment of the earth, using detailed adjectives to describe his happiness. Phrases like, "gentle breeze," "enfranchised," and "sweet stream" are used, enhancing Wordsworth's story. This use of adjectives shows Wordsworth's quality of being a story teller, which contributes to a philosophical context. Philosophy, in general, is a series of ideas told in stories. Plato, for example, imparted his philosophy on the masses by telling stories that exemplified his philosophy. Also, the Bible is a series of stories that describes Christianity. Therefore, Wordsworth sets up The Prelude into a series of stories in order to describe his philosophy on life.

Again, looking at the adjectives in these lines, Wordsworth's choice of words contributes to his philosophical context. Not only does he use words to describe his moment of bliss, but he uses certain words that allude to a philosophical intent. Words like, "half conscious," "set free," and "is all before me" exemplify Wordsworth's view on life, or his philosophy. The words when looked at individually and as a whole still show a philosophical background. By adding these phrases to a story, Wordsworth conveys his philosophy of life through The Prelude.

Although I only focused on a small section of The Prelude, I still believe Lines 1-30 of Book First exemplify Wordsworth's philosophical intent. However, the great thing about The Prelude is that Wordsworth's intent can be constantly disputed, which I think Wordsworth would want his readers to do.

The Prelude

In the spirit of Easter, I figured I would analyze a section of The Prelude that spoke to me in a very religious manner...

William Wordsworth illustrates the deep messages of epistemology throughout lines 222-245. In these lines, he describes the emotions nature draws from him, and how nature itself is more than the surroundings and environment around us. Wordsworth utilizes diction and description to introduce a philosophical religious message to this work.

Initially, he uses the words sanctuaries, independence, and liberty. Sanctuaries are commonly tied to church, and this independence and liberty can be expressed because many people let themselves go to God during their time in a sanctuary by confessing their sins and striving to be better Christians day in and day out. Nature appears to be his "immortal," just like Jesus Christ is to Christians. Wordsworth is searching for a "philosophic song of Truth," and I believe Truth is capitalized because God created the nature surrounding him, therefore the "Truth" is the truth of God himself.

Wordsworth's passion for nature is apparent throughout the course of The Prelude. God created the beauty and magnificence of nature, and through Wordsworth's passion comes tranquility and easiness. Many Christians find strength and ease by looking to the Lord through prayer and reverence. As mentioned above, nature is his sanctuary where he finds his own freedom. But the line that speaks the most to me is line 227-230, "Some variegated story, in the main lofty, but the unsubstantial structure melts before the very sun that brightens it, Mist into air dissolving!" God clearly created the sun to assure our planet would thrive. God "dissolves" peoples' sins just as the sun dissolves (evaporates) mist on this planet. The sun and God appear as one because the sun provides light against darkness, just as God provides the light when Christians are lost in spirit.

Even towards the conclusion of the poem, nature appears to be just like faith to Wordsworth. He writes, "With meditations passionate from deep recesses in man's heart, immortal verse thoughtfully fitted to the Orphean lyre." Orpheus was a Greek god that was a superior musician. Wordsworth experiences this meditation, like a prayer, deep within his heart when surrounded by nature, and it is so deep, beautiful and easing, it is fitting to a Greek god's lyre. This illustrates the power of prayer. He also states he will "beguile [himself] with trust that mellower years will bring a riper mind." This line reminds me of the quote, "God will put you through hell, just to get you to heaven." In harsh and rough times, one can only believe and keep faith. Clearly, Wordsworth finds this faith and strength by being surrounded by nature. When he is experiencing rough times, nature puts him at ease and into an "immortal" frame of mind and a "clearer insight."

This Is the End, My Friends

Now that the school year is almost done, soon to let out countless students for some summer fun, a world of possibility awaits, especially for those graduating and moving on to greater things. Sometimes it seems as though our time at school works to narrow down our lives; whereas before we were blank slates full of potential, now we have majors and potential career paths in mind. However, looking back on all that I have learned, the realization comes upon me that I am now more versatile than ever before. Thanks in part to a liberal arts education, I have honed my ability to learn about a broad variety of topics with quickness and ease, allowing me to adapt to whatever situation I am in, regardless of how new or different it may be. Although before I feared that I would be limited in my future choices by my education, I have indeed become a jack of all trades. With undergraduate classes soon to be a distant memory, I find myself feeling more free than ever before; I can do anything, live anywhere, and be what I want to be (at least in theory, with work). Lines 33-54 of Wordsworth’s 1805 Prelude work to articulate this feeling of liberty, which he uses as a chance to explore his creativity. To draw the reader into this state of mind, he uses grand, evocative language and metaphor.

In order to make the reader understand the magnitude of Wordsworth’s new found freedom to develop his creative energy, he uses an escalating metaphor comparing it with wind. At first, creativity begins as a “sweet breath of heaven”, coming from Wordsworth’s belief that nature endows us with talents which we then nurture as opposed to acquiring traits over time. Then, it progresses to a “mild creative breeze”, seeming relatively harmless and perhaps a bit mediocre, as is often the case when developing one’s skills in creative pursuits. However, very quickly this idle breeze becomes a storm of great power, which Wordsworth describes as containing “Pure passions, virtue, knowledge, and delight, / the holy life of music and of verse”. Clearly, the freedom from responsibility Wordsworth has experienced has allowed him to direct his focus to his own devices and nurture his innate abilities to full strength. This grand explanation of how freedom allowed him to get in tune with his creativity gives the reader a sense of the immenseness of these events in his life.

The Prelude of 1805- The first few lines

The Prelude by William Wordsworth is a poem that presents the idea of a philosophical nature. In the first lines of the 647-line poem, the poet describes himself as entering a realm where nature is a giant blessing as a way to introduce the idea of his freedom from his previous environment, London.

Wordsworth uses many adjectives that create the sense of his excitement to welcome nature into his life. For example, the poet states that the gentle breeze is only half conscious of the joy it gives. The poet is clearly excited that the breeze is blowing and even goes as far to say that there is a blessing within the breeze. This is the first indication that the poet is excited to welcome nature as a part of his life and it occurs in the very first few lines of the poem. The next indication that the poet is excited to welcome nature comes when he says “O welcome messenger! O welcome friend!” This repetition almost makes the poet sound almost deliriously excited in his greeting to nature, especially because he is addressing the breeze.

In addition, these lines are heavily enjambed, which allow the reader to quickly go through the lines of the poem. The alacrity of the reading creates a sense of urgency, which makes one think that the “urgency” is actually another indication of the poet’s excitement to finally leave the restrictions of London.

Finally, in the next few lines, the poet alludes to living in London. It seems as if the poet is finally feeling freed from his life in London. Thus, he is extremely relieved to be in this new environment. His diction shows his enthusiasm for his freedom from the restraints of London. Now, the poet is able to enjoy the independence from London and shows his excitement through the diction of Wordsworth.

The Prelude of 1799 (Second Part Lines 215-236)

William Wordsworth’s “The Prelude” can be interpreted as a philosophical poem that describes the delicate balance between nature and the mind. Throughout the whole text Wordsworth discusses the mind and epistemology, which is balanced with Wordsworth excessive description of nature. Lines 215 to 236 stand out to me and shows the intense passion Wordsworth felt towards nature.

Language and wording are key elements of this poem that Wordsworth used to describe his love for nature. One of the first things Wordsworth mentions is “the common range of visible things grew dear to me.” In this statement it is easy to see how Wordsworth was first becoming aware of the beauty of nature that is ever surrounding him. He then begins to describe specific things that appeal to him like the sun and the moon. Wordsworth talks about how the sun/nature in general makes him so happy that his “blood appeared to flow,” and how he “breathed with joy.”

Wordsworth’s personification in lines 215 to 236 is very significant to the poem. It is almost overwhelming the way he personifies the sun and the moon as actual beings. It is extremely easy for us to be able to picture the images he is painting with his language, like the sun slowly setting/rising, and how the moon is being seen up in the sky between two large hills. However the way Wordsworth calls the sun a he, and says “he lays his beauty” is very intense and makes me think of the sun almost like a God, like Apollo. He also personifies the mountain as he says “The western mountain touch his setting orb.” The passion in these lines is very similar to another Wordsworth poem, “My Heart Leaps Up” where he also describes the love he feels when he views nature. This personification helps to make this poem beautiful.

Ultimately these lines are a good summation of how Wordsworth feels towards nature. He is simply in love with it and every aspect of it, not just its wondrous beauty, as the rest of “The Prelude” discusses the many other parts of nature.

Optional Blog Post: Oread

Because it is the subject of my creative response, I thought I would use this optional blog post to explore the poem Oread as a way to try and organize my understanding of the poem. This blog post begins to touch on my impression of the poem. I found this text to be extremely challenging to write about, and it makes me wonder about the different ways that we respond to poetry and come to understand it. In this case I feel like my creative response to the poem does a much better job (though still an incomplete job) of communicating my conception of the text. All the same, here follows an attempt that I have made at analyzing this text in an academic way.
In her six-line poem Oread, H.D. is able to weave together the image of pines growing in a quiet forest and that of the dynamic, wave-broken ocean surface by making careful choices in wording.
H.D.’s initial juxtaposition of the two images is made when she chooses to have her speaker repeat the word “whirl” in both the first and the second lines of the poem. In the first line it is a command to the sea and in the second line it is describing the action that will reveal the ocean to have something of the pine tree waiting just beneath its surface (“do this” becomes “do [this] with x”). Though the use of the word changes from a direct command to the ocean to an indirect command concerning the pines, its reuse makes not only a smooth transition between the first and second line but also irrevocably bonds the sea and the pine forest images.
H.D.’s next significant word choice follows at the start of the third line with the word “splash.” This word recalls the sound of another word, spray, which is often used to describe the needles of pine trees (e.g.: spray of pine). Yet the word “splash” as it is commonly used is often much more closely bound to the image of water and it often carries the connotation of greater wetness than is carried by the word spray, giving it a strong tie to the ocean which H.D. is describing. The similar sounds of the word “splash” and spray (as well as their closely related meanings) further binds the dynamic ocean image to the more still image of pines bursting from the ground in a forest.
Having brought some of the dynamism of the word splash to the image of the pine trees, H.D. tries to continue the oceanic movement that has begun to enter the image of the once-passive forest. The word “hurl” in the fifth line serves this purpose well. “Hurl” sound like the “whirl” used in the first two lines, so the sound of this word does not shock the reader, and the shift into words describing greater amounts of movement has already been started by the step from sprays to “splash”es of pine. So despite the fact that the word “hurl” actually describes a very violent motion that waves can make, it is able to slide into our understanding of a stately pine forest without difficulty at this point in the poem.
Having brought her readers to this point, H.D. suddenly shifts her attention and brings some of the calm found in the slow-growing forest to the shore-slapping waves. Using the relation that she has built between water and the forest, H.D.’s speaker references “pools of fir” (6) as a descriptor of the ocean surface. “Pools” is an expansive word that can serve to draw reader attention away from the specific sprays of water that are generated by waves impacting on the rock, away from the specific splashes of now-dynamic pine needles that only exist in the branches of the trees. It allows the reader to take in the broader expanse of the ocean (most of which is too deep for waves to appear on the surface) or the forest floor where needles rise and gather (pool, even) like puddles of rain around the bases of the fir trees from which they fell. So H.D. completes the circle, attaching some of the forest’s hush to the ocean in the same way that she attached some of the ocean’s wildness to the majestic pines: through careful attention to words.

The Prelude 1805 (Lines 1-32)

In “The Prelude” (1805) by William Wordsworth, we can observe the strong relationship between man (the speaker) versus nature all throughout. On lines 1-32, the speaker makes a deep connection with Nature; his relationship with nature evolves and strengthens. As we begin to read, the first stanza of “The Prelude of 1805” shows how the speaker’s relationship with nature develops. Wordsworth uses several literary devices along with a profound sense of sincerity and realization to express how nature makes him feel. Through the use of various clever figures of speech, descriptive imagery and sincere tone, Wordsworth demonstrates his intent of expressing his personal experience with nature while strongly stressing the relationship between man versus nature.  Wordsworth shows readers that nature is the best option; he claims that nature will save us.

Wordsworth strengthens his point—to insist on the beneficial relationship that arises between man and nature—through the use of alliteration, enjambment, repetition and parallelism, to mention a few. When using repetition, Wordsworth instigates that it is important we listen to his mind speaking to us because to him—who is also the speaker in the poem—it is important that we realize the vital role nature has played in his life. It is thanks to nature that he has found the inner peace we all seek. We can see repetition on line 5, “O welcome messenger! O welcome friend!” He is repetitively welcoming nature into his life. The repetitive pattern continues on but becomes stronger; we see it in the form of parallelism—sentences that start off with the same structure. Lines 12, 13 and 14 all start with “shall”. Once again, this reinforces the welcoming of nature into his life and leads way to how his life is already changing because of nature.

Two other key literary elements used in the introductory stanza of “The Prelude 1805” (book first) are alliteration and enjambment. Wordsworth carefully applies alliteration to beautify his poetic introduction to his “greatest discovery yet”. This “beautification” symbolizes Wordsworth’s visualization of nature in his life. This beautiful sounding stanza portrays how nature has enlightened and enhanced the speaker’s life. “Trances of thought and mountings of the mind” (20) is one of the most beautiful lines in the entire stanza and it is a line with not only one, but two examples of alliteration. We hear “traces” along with “thoughts” then move on to “mountings” and “mind”. The beauty and attention this line draws grasps the attention of readers and keeps them engaged. Furthermore, what enhances the harmony of these first thirty-two lines is the continuous usage of enjambment. The employment of enjambment allows his ideas to be clearly communicated to readers. In fact, there are more sentences that continue onto the next line than those that finish or have punctuations. This, once again, is a clever tactic that gives readers a deeper desire to connect with the speaker and with the speaker’s message. With these two strong literary devices—alliteration and enjambment—Wordsworth achieves his purpose, which is to enamor his audience with the gifts and blessings nature has to offer.

All the literary elements used by Wordsworth in the poem come together to create a great visual picture on the audience. Imagery is extremely important in this poem. Not only does Wordsworth tell us how nature is enhancing his life—as he finally lets it in, he also shows us how beautiful this nature through detail and description. Wordsworth does not just tell the audience, he shows them—which makes fortifies the delivery of his message. Wordsworth allows us to be in the scene with him: “Oh there is blessing in this gentle breeze, That blows from the green fields and from the clouds; And from the sky . . .” (1-3). The connection Wordsworth attempts to make with the audience is significantly important because it allows the audience to step in Wordsworth’s shoes for a brief moment, to feel what he feels when he befriends nature and allows it to come into his life. Imagery lets readers place themselves in the scene with the speaker, experience what he feels and accept the message he communicates to his audience.

Regardless of the lack of rhyme scheme, Wordsworth carefully writes the first stanza so that it still flows and sounds beautifully; this is also due to sincerity in the speaker’s tone. Wordsworth purposely uses his sincerity so that readers develop a deeper sense of pathos and so they connect easily with the intended message—the importance nature plays in our lives. The speaker lets us in his most intimate thoughts, inside of his mind, thus we feel more intimate and closer to him. While Wordsworth shares his thoughts all throughout the first stanza, lines 6-10 show us exactly how open the speaker is being with this audience: “A captive greets thee, coming from a house; Of bondage, from yon city’s walls set free, A prison where he hath been long immured. Now I am free, enfranchised and at large, May fix my habitation where I will” (6-10). Wordsworth sincerely tells us he felt imprisoned, and now, nature has freed him from the chains and walls of living encapsulated in the city. Nature helped the speaker discover his inner piece.  

While he may have not felt accomplished in writing “The Prelude”, he did a beautiful job in writing it. He intentionally expresses the autobiography of his intellect—he shows us his great poetic abilities. Wordsworth keeps readers moving in only one direction, forward. The first thirty-two lines have a funnel effect: there are tons of things and thoughts running through his mind yet he tries to straighten them out. His reasoning—or solution—to the walls and imprisonment he talks about is nature. Nature brings him the peace and happiness he had been seeking all his life. The opening stanza of “The Prelude of 1805” goes directly to the point Wordsworth wishes to share—he wants the world to know the power nature holds in saving a human soul. 

Optional Blog Post

In The Two Part Prelude of 1799 we see Wordsworth look into himself and try to figure out why he thinks the way he does and why life is the way it is. In lines 67-80 we see him discuss what he thinks is what makes people who they are and what determines how they act. He seems to even join in on the nature v. nurture debate in order to figure out what he thinks. Eventually Wordsworth comes to think that nature does play a big role in what is going on but that one can break this cycle if they strive hard enough.

Although it may seem like Wordsworth believes in nature over nurture this is not correct. "I believe that there are spirits which, when they would form a favored being, from his very dawn of infancy do open out the clouds." Wordsworth begins this stanza with a simple statement of resignation to nature, but he then goes on to say “Others too there are… and of their school was I.” This seemingly nonsensical contradiction makes no sense at all, but when one looks at its implications it helps explain why nurture rules over nature. By stating that only a certain few are endowed with gifts and then not counting him one of them Wordsworth effectively asks for an explanation of why he is an oddity. This creates a tension with a person reading this who believes in nature over nurture and forces them to come up with the realization that some people can grow to become who they are because of their experiences and not just out of their nature.

Wordsworth also creates the impression that nurture is stronger that nature through the diction. When describing the people who are endowed by nature Wordsworth uses adjectives such as “quiet,” “gentle,” and “retired.” These words are not powerful and just seem to be filler words so as to say that those who believe in nature believe in the non-essential. This is contrasted with the valuable and meaningful words associated with the idea of nurture shaping one’s life such as “palpable,” “aiming,” and “interventions.” Of these words only one is an adjective and the other two are verbs and that also demonstrates how Wordsworth believes that life is actively changed and that it is not passive actions that form a single person.

In Wordsworth’s The Prelude life philosophies become clear and one of them is that a person has the ability to shape his own life. He states that the environment may help but that it if a single person has the desire they too can do whatever they want because he has set precedent for it by his being a very good poet but admittedly not being part of the gifted group.

To Simplicity

    Coleridge's sonnet "To Simplicity" is one of the few sonnets I've read and enjoyed. The way he personified simplicity made me look at it as if it were a real person. I imagined this person who was concise at everything without ever doing too much. Coleridge includes a great use of punctuation throughout the sonnet. His use of exclamation points throughout the sonnet allows you to feel his excitement as he expresses his love for simplicity. Even looking at some of his other sonnets, he does the same thing. While reading the sonnet I felt like I was taking this journey and falling in love with simplicity as Coleridge did. To look deeper into the poem I believe Coleridge wasn't just addressing simplicity as an abstract attribute, but as a personal characteristic. It seems he likes for people to be simple in action. Although he doesn't explicitly say this, I believe it is difficult to love an inanimate attribute without being able to attach it to something. Simplicity cannot exist without a host. The most striking part of this sonnet would have to be the volta. Of course it's the turn in the sonnet, but it presents us with a statement that can be viewed as a complex simplicity, which furthermore goes with the theme of the sonnet. "But, whether sad or fierce, 'tis simple all, All very simple, meek simplicity!" These last two lines of the poem stand out because they present us with a puzzle. The lines are simple, but you may have to read them a few times in order to get what Coleridge is saying. In summary, I believe Coleridge is trying to tell us that everything is simple and we overcomplicate things. That if we operate in simplicity, everything would be simple.

The two-part prelude of 1799

Lines 391-411 of the second part of The Two-Part Prelude of 1799 give us a greater understanding of the larger context of Wordsworth’s prelude of 1799. Throughout this version of the Prelude there is an emphasis on discovering the importance of Wordsworth’s childhood on the shaping of his poetic thought and mind. We get to see the impact of Wordsworth’s experience on his writing of this poem. Wordsworth on more than one occasion refers to his experiences as leaving his mind with thoughts and feelings in this section. He implores us to see the power of these experiences and the impact they leave.

Wordsworth makes reference to the way in which moments permanently penetrated his mind as a growing being and what that means for his adulthood. In lines 395-396 Wordsworth states, “How shall I trace the history, where seek the origin of what I have felt?” Wordsworth discusses that he experiences emotions that he’s knows left an impact based off of what he has felt but he’s knows not the specific details or origin. An experience's impression upon his mind, at the time of the experience itself may not still be with him but he seeks to trace the history of his present way of thinking and feeling, to know what sparks the creative powers he presently works with. In terms of impacting his adulthood he goes on to say in line 398-401, “The agency of sight, and it was what I saw Appeared like something in myself, a dream, a prospect in my mind.” Wordsworth implies that his experiences are leaving a lasting impact. The footnotes help us to better understand the context in which Wordsworth uses the word prosepect. We are provided with a definition of prospect that denotes formation or creation. The agency of sight or a past experience inspires a dream or creation to appear in his mind shaping his creative thought in adulthood.

Later in this section of the second part of the prelude Wordsworth emphasizes the way in which his childhood experiences are the underpinnings of his present thought. He does so in a way that places nature at the forefront. He describes how his dreams, experiences, and thoughts spur on his desire to walk with Nature. Lines 405-409 he states, “And what my walking thoughts, supplied to nurse That spirit of religious love in which I walked with nature.” He is speaking in the past tense and helps us to further see that his past experiences are present in his thoughts. He is strongly impacted by experiences of childhood and his experiences in Nature both of which have helped him to retain his “first creative sensibility.”

Prelude Book I Group Discussion Questions

Group 1: 27-49
Group 2: 50-66
Group 3: 67-81
Group 4: 130-149
Group 5: 150-169
Group 6: 170-185

1. What is the relationship between man and nature in this passage? What power does nature have? What are the obstacles to man accepting or assuming that power?

2. Describe the physical landscape in the section of the poem. What is unique about it? How is it shaping Wordsworth’s mind?

3. Do other people (aside from the speaker) appear in this section, either by direct reference or by implication? If so, how does he relate to them? What are his responsibilities and duties toward them? How do they complicate his relationship with nature?

4. What is happening to the speaker’s mind in this passage? Is he experiencing growth, conflict, regression, etc.? What is the significance of this passage to Wordsworth larger intellectual development?

Wordsworth's Prelude (Lines 150-169)

Wordsworth’s poem, The Prelude, begins by telling us about Wordsworth’s narrator’s idyllic childhood when he lived in some sort of harmony with nature, moving easily about between the snares he left to catch birds in the woods (31-49), the nests from which he once stole ravens’ eggs (53-59), and other such scenes of balance between the young man and the environment. Yet in the midst of this peace, Wordsworth suddenly changes his tone and foreshadows the alienation from nature that the narrator will experience as he grows older. The first signal of this approaching gulf might comes from the fact that this verse is set in “the frosty season” (150), when the waters and crags are covered by “polished ice” (157). The frosty season (which the reader understands to be winter) is a time when nature seems dead to human observers, the greenery that we associate with the outdoors being killed by the chill, most animals being more dormant than in warmer times, and much of the normally available water supply being at risk of freezing (making access to it a more difficult, if not impossible, matter). This sense that these sources of life and beauty are dormant or inaccessible (as well as the fact that winter is itself associated with aging) plays a major part in Wordsworth’s argument that nature as a whole is becoming less accessible to the narrator as he grows older. Wordsworth makes a point that his narrator is only losing touch with nature and has not yet lost touch when his narrator does not “heed the summons” of the bell tower that would call him back to the civilized world of the town (153-154). Yet even this show of resistance is marked for termination–though at first Wordsworth seems to be relating himself to a wild horse that “cares not for its home,” he then reveals that the horse of his metaphor is already domesticated and therefore bound to be drawn into civilization again eventually despite his love for untamed nature (155-156). The domesticated nature of this horse is revealed when Wordsworth shows that his horse is “shod with steel,” referring to the shoes that owners put on their horses to protect their hooves (156). A horseshoe works by preventing a horse’s hoof from making contact with the earth beneath it, acting as a barrier between the horse and a form of nature, the ground itself. It is this alienating device that Wordsworth places on his narrator’s feet, though in this case it is in the form of an ice skate which the narrator and the other people who have apparently accompanied him (indicated by the “we” of line 157). The ice skate also represents man’s innovation being put to use to subjugate nature, overcoming the obstacle of ice and forcing nature to serve as a means of transportation for humans skidding across the frozen surfaces of ponds. This is a relatively harmless device of subjugation, and Wordsworth presents it more as a child’s means of play in this verse, but it foreshadows harsher devices that man makes out of iron that are used to domesticate nature for man’s careless use. The sounds of the children’s voices create a chaotic “din” (162) in the once-silent (and once-peaceful) woods and craggy peaks, and the only noise that the narrator describes apart from this din of human voices is the sound of “iron” echoing back to him from the precipices and narrow places in the cliffs (165). These echoes of manmade sound are “alien” (166) to the narrator, who has grown up with little more than the sublime quiet of nature around him. Not only does the word alien here describe the humans and mark them as out of place in this natural haven, but the fact that these strange noises are echoing back to him from a natural place suggests the perception of nature as the source of alien things that the narrator will acquire as he grows into his identity as a civilized human being. To finish off this neat package of age and alienation, Wordsworth ends the verse with a brilliant sunset as the “orange sky of evening died” (169) as though to mark the rapidly approaching end of Wordsworth’s days as a child living in harmony with nature, the last beautiful glimpse he will have of a fully accessible nature for a long time.

"With Ships the Sea was Sprinkled Far and Nigh"

“With Ships the Sea was Sprinkled Far and Nigh” follows the traditional Petrarchan style with a volta occurring just after line eight. The extended metaphor comparing the ships to women illuminates the human condition to seek out and fixate on what we think is the “best” amongst a group.

The speaker takes a different approach, a more cryptic one, not only masking the woman he loves through comparison of the ship but also by comparing the ship to “stars in heaven.” He finds the ships, or the women around him beautiful and ethereal, but scattered. The horizon of the sea and the sky is already difficult to discern, but under the night sky the contrast fades completely. The sea meets the sky and the reflection the stars make on the sea furthers the blend. This is how the speaker sees the ships on the sea; while he can make out the different ships on the sea and discern the “fast” ones from the “veering up and down” but because the sea and the sky meet, and they are like “stars in heaven” he cannot individualize any of them. None stand out to him as extraordinary until the “goodly vessel” appears, coming from the “haven broad.” She, unlike the rest is given places of reference from where she came and where she is going. The rest are simply at dock in the harbor, their lives and stories unknown. The speaker emphasizes that she is from a “haven,” a sanctuary showing how special he finds her, like she has been sent from this ethereal place nearer to him. Unlike the other ships though, she “will brook no tarring” and will not remain stagnate in the harbor. Her life, at least in the speaker’s eyes, is richer and fuller than all other ships’ and although some of the other ships waver in the sea, she is truly the only one moving. It creates an image that amongst all the undulating waves and “star” like ships, she is the only the one he fixates on, to the point that the others fade into the background just as the sea fades into the sky. The speaker also gives her a destination: “due north.” She has purpose in life unlike the rest which remain in the harbor, and although the speaker realizes that she was “nought to me nor I to her” he cannot help but be astonished and mesmerized, desiring to “pursue” her, even if her passing was only momentary.