Wordsworth - The Prelude Notes on The Prelude

Be sure to read the head note to the poem and the footnotes. Basic overview. Bk 1 is the first book of The Prelude. The book begins with the speaker leaving the city and heading to his "hermitage" in the Vale (see lines 72; 106-07). The speaker-poet is an adult, looking back at his life. (The Prelude is an autobiographical poem.) This introduction refers to the adult speaker. He then goes back to his childhood and the formation of his relationship with nature (lines 269-544). Lines 545-612 connect his childhood to the present. Lines 612-47 return to the opening of Bk 1--the adult speaker (line 625) has found his theme and will continue his story--the rest of The Prelude.

Lines & Notes

1-45: Preamble--ideas of freedom. Corresponding breeze--see footnote. Problem of too much freedom and inspiration--chosen task as poet (46-48)? See footnote. Key Idea: Freedom vs. boundaries

60-93: Continues ideas of preamble but gives "respite" to passion--disengagement

95-131: Attempt to recover passion again but fails--Eolian harp--see footnote//tries to justify loss//

114-15: longing rises again--determined aim//find a noble theme to write about

132-249: These lines consider various subjects for the poet's project: stories of freedom/liberty but they also would tie the poet to tradition (222--poet wants a tale from his own heart)

269-325: Poet chooses the history of his mind's development as his theme--description of childhood Depicts the image of childhood made famous by Wordsworth (This image is associated with Romanticism. Think of Blake--although Blake critiques this image of natural, innocent childhood with the dialectic of innocence and experience. "TA"--"thoughtless youth")

The Sublime

Line 302: Antithetical principles of beauty and fear

Beauty: refers to a subjective experience in which there is a harmony between an individual's physical encounter with the world and freedom. As a subjective experience, beauty is not located in the property of the (natural) object. However, beauty can be "universal" because it can affect all individuals. Beauty suggests a fitting of the mind and world. Fear is associated with the sublime.

390-414; 453-474: The sublime (e.g., Burke and Kant) refers to the confrontation of the mind with nature. The mind is overwhelmed by the magnitude of what it comprehends as natural forms inspire awe. Feelings of terror and fear, though not deadly, overwhelm the mind and put it at risk--and force it ultimately to transcend sense perception and interpret that which it initially cannot comprehend. The result of these confrontations with nature is expressed in lines 597-612. The ultimate effect is increased perception and imaginative powers--and this leads back to the beautiful as the individual experiences joy and confidence in his or her ability to confront nature's grandeur. The sublime underscores human limitation in the face of nature but also the individual's power in the face of nature.

Finally, the last paragraph of the poem (640-647): the speaker-poet has found a theme, single and of determined bounds. Note the balance (tension?) between form (boundaries, restraint) and freedom (his theme--growth of the poet's mind/a break from tradition). Although he implies his theme may be "feeble" and "tedious," it is of substance and worthwhile.