The Prelude Essay Questions

Explain the broad conceit and form of the work.

The complete title of the poem is The Prelude or, Growth of a Poet's Mind; An Autobiographical Poem, and from the beginning, the author intended to make it an epic poem spanning the duration of his life. William Wordsworth began working on this poem in his 20s and he continued to work until his death at the age of 80 years old, originally intending it to function as a precursor to an even more important, epic poem to be called The Recluse. The Prelude is divided into fourteen parts analyzing distinct periods in the author's life such as his childhood, his time abroad, and his education. It offers a great deal of insight into the life of the author. Still, it is important to note that this poem is not only a work of autobiography, but also a philosophical text in which the author talks at length about his beliefs and his views on life.

Discuss the speaker's views on education.

While the speaker regularly advocates for the advancement of knowledge and the development of insight, he is explicitly opposed to overly institutional or structured forms of education. He describes his own early childhood as an ideal educational environment, recalling that it involved unstructured immersion in nature and access to great works of literature. In contrast, he notes, many contemporary children are forced into goal-oriented learning that aims to strip them of childish curiosity and rob nature of its inherent mysteriousness. Perhaps the pinnacle of such an undesirable education is Cambridge, where the speaker attends university. While he enjoys his social life and being in a place that has been home to great thinkers, he finds the university pretentious and limiting, in large part because it exists at a remove from nature.

Describe and analyze the anecdote of the discharged soldier.

While on summer vacation, the speaker encounters a sickly-looking man sitting on a deserted road at nighttime. The speaker approaches the man, who turns out to have been recently discharged from the military, and helps him to a safe and comfortable shelter. However, he does so somewhat unhappily, feeling fear and even disgust for the man, alongside pity and compassion. At many moments in the text, the speaker connects deeply to something—often nature—even while feeling terrified of and disturbed by it. Here, he experiences such a mixed moment. He very much connects with the man, bringing him to safety, hearing his story, and committing a truly selfless act on his behalf. That connection is both contradicted by and made all the more memorable and important because of his distaste. Moments of true insight, growth, beauty, or usefulness, the speaker repeatedly implies, are often uneasy and downright unpleasant.

Interpret the following quote: "As one who hangs, down-bending from the side / Of a slow-moving Boat, upon the breast /Of a still water...often is perplex'd, and cannot part / The shadow from the substance"

In this simile, the speaker compares himself to a boater who looks down into the water and finds himself unable to distinguish reflections from reality. This image illustrates the peculiar entanglement of present and past that the speaker experiences when returning home after a period away. When he returns home, he finds it difficult to parse the changes that he sees around him: what was once familiar seems newly fascinating and odd. He wonders whether his home itself has changed, or whether it is merely his perception and outlook that has changed. This moment is one of many in the Prelude where the speaker meditates on the fluid, elusive nature of memory.

Discuss one use of juxtaposition in the Prelude.

As part of a longer description of his theatergoing in Book Seventh, the speaker juxtaposes two women (and their two children). One is the Maid of Buttermere, a young woman whom he once knew in real life: she is now the subject of the play he watches. The Maid of Buttermere, described as modest and virtuous in life, meets a tragic death and is buried alongside her young child. The other woman is a fellow theatergoer, who wears makeup and ignores her young child to party with other revelers. The speaker juxtaposes the virtue of one woman with the immorality of the other, reflecting eighteenth-century gender norms. He also parallels their children, suggesting that the still-living son of the second mother might have reason to envy the buried son of the first.

Analyze the form and meter of the Prelude.

The Prelude is split into fourteen books and written in unrhymed iambic pentameter, or blank verse. Each of the fourteen books discusses a discrete topic or period from the poet's life. The consistent use of a single meter across all fourteen books, however, unifies them and creates a feeling of predictability and consistency throughout the work. Moreover, unrhymed iambic pentameter mimics the natural sound and rhythm of English-language speech more effectively than any other meter. Therefore, by using it, Wordsworth positions his work at the intersection of the literary and the oral. He indicates an investment in everyday speech and suggests that poetic language can or should be similar to spoken language.

Discuss one incident each of alliteration or assonance in the Prelude.

When discussing conversations with his beloved friend Beaupuis, Wordsworth uses alliterative D sounds to evoke the dramatic, rising stakes of revolutionary politics. He calls his friend's creed one of "danger, difficulty, or death." This list of three alliterative words is preceded by several others in close proximity: "Divine" and "desire." These preceding words build up slowly, even undetectably. This buildup culminates with the list of three alliterative words in a row. The word "death" is the climactic moment of this alliterative cluster, hinting at the ultimate stakes that Beaupois and other revolutionaries must face.

How does the character of Coleridge serve the work?

While the real-life Wordsworth did in fact compose the Prelude with his friend Samuel Taylor Coleridge in mind, both men also appear in the autobiographical poem as fictionalized versions of themselves. Coleridge is constructed here to induce pathos and to represent a contrast with the speaker. He is described as having led a difficult life, alienated from nature. The speaker addresses him with admiration for having consciously and purposefully sought a connection with the natural world. Furthermore, the figure of Coleridge lends a certain urgency and importance to the narrative. What might feel aimless and rambling is given direction by the second-person address at the center of the poem.

Discuss the speaker's relationship to reason and rationalism.

A number of critics and scholars have speculated that William Godwin, a utilitarian writer and philosopher of Wordsworth's acquaintance, had a profound influence on the writer. It is certainly true that the speaker of the Prelude develops a complex relationship to Godwinian ideas of reason and to Enlightenment empiricism broadly. In the aftermath of the French Revolution, the speaker copes with disappointment and confusion by developing a highly empirical worldview. However, he realizes later that this empiricism served him only superficially, by allowing him to feel superior to and distant from the objects of his analysis. Such reason is not truly rational, because it is concerned with ego rather than truth. Ultimately, the speaker reflects, he needed to return to the open imaginativeness of his early childhood in order to feel personally and intellectually complete.

Discuss the role of one character in the poem other than the speaker.

During his time living in France, the speaker befriends a French military officer: historical sources tell us that this officer's full name was Michel de Beaupuy. Beaupuy shares the speaker's anger about France's status quo, as well as his hope for a fairer future. As a Frenchman himself, he in some ways feels more strongly connected to the cause of the Revolution, experiencing injustice more personally. At the same time, his politics are a form of iconoclasm, causing his fellow soldiers—all Royalists—to scorn him. For the speaker, Beaupuy's independent thinking is an inspirational example of selfless bravery. Meanwhile, Beaupuy's death in battle foreshadows future political regression, since the speaker notes that his friend is lucky not to have seen France's downfall.