William Wordsworth's "The Prelude"

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that William Wordsworth's poem "The Prelude", is a lengthy poem, described as a Romantic autobiography, in which he features his own development as a poet and the evolution of his spirit. The paper then points out that, for Wordsworth and the other Romantic poets, there is a complementary relationship between nature and the imagination, which is crucial to the understanding of Wordsworth's design in this poem. The paper illustrates this relationship as the poet develops from a child to a young boy and finally to a youth.

Table of Contents:
The Child Loves Nature for its Charm on a Sensuous Level
The Young Boy Loves Nature for its Own Sake on an Aesthetic Level
The Youth Loves Nature as a Sacred Force

From the Paper:

"As the child grows older, his experience and love of nature change. The simple charm and spiritual animation that nature had inspired in the early years of childhood are replaced by the pure delight that the poet takes in the contemplation of nature later on. Thus, the young boy becomes captivated by nature "for its own sake", that is, he grows from the mere sensuous delight offered by nature to an aesthetic and philosophical perception of the world surrounding him. Learning to love nature for its own sake is the first step towards the development of a truly poetic mind that can apprehend the greatness and the mystery of nature."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Gaskell, Ronald. Wordsworth's Poem of the Mind: An Essay on 'The Prelude'. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1991.
• Harding, Anthony John. "Wordsworth's Prelude, Tracey Emin, and Romantic Autobiography." Wordsworth Circle 34.2 (Spring 2003): 59(7).
• Philmus, Robert M. "Wordsworth and the interpretation of dreams." Papers on Language & Literature 31.n2 (Spring 1995): 184(22).
• Smith, J. Mark. "'Unrememberable' sound in Wordsworth's 1799 Prelude." Studies in Romanticism 42.4 (Winter 2003): 501(19).
• Wordsworth, William. The Prelude, or the Growth of a Poet's Mind. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1926.

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