The Prelude Literary Elements

The speaker, a stand-in for Wordsworth, narrates the poet's life in the first person. Interestingly, he has something of a split identity, describing his childhood from a great temporal and perceptual distance.

Fourteen books of unrhymed iambic pentameter

Similes include "like a peasant I pursued," "to patriotic and domestic love analogous," the recurring "like a dream," "happy as the birds," "as a man, who, when his house is built...In impotence of mind, by his fireside, rebuild it to his liking," "as a kitten when at play," and "I was no further changed/Than as a clouded, not a waning, moon." One of the text's more elaborate similes occurs at the opening of Book Ninth, when the speaker muses: "As oftentimes a river, it might seem,/Yielding in part to old remembrances,/Part swayed by fear to tread an onward road/That leads dirct to the devouring sea,/Turns, and will measure back his course, far back,/Towards the very regions which he crossed/In his first outset; so have we long time/ Made motions retrograde..." In Paris, meanwhile, the speaker looks "as doth a man/Upon a volume whose contents he knows/Are memorable, but from him locked up..."

Metaphors include "my life became a floating island," "every word they uttered was a dart," "My business was upon the barren sea," and "the horizon of my mind enlarged."

Instances of alliteration include S's in "the self-sufficing power of solitude," S's in "strange seas of thought," H's in "haunted by herself," D's in"dereliction and dismay," P's in "plastic power," S's in "solemn and sublime," G's in "golden gleam," R's in "riots, or rejoicings," P's in "More perfectly of purer creatures," P's in "the promise of the present time," and H's in "a hundred hills."

Examples of assonance include long E's in "even as a seed," short O's in"honored mother," long O's in "composure, and ennobling Harmony," A's in "dance with lambs," long E's in "sheep like Greenland bears," long O's in "cordial transport," and long I's in "life's prime."

One of the major instances of situational irony in the text is that of solitude and connection. When the speaker is alone, he finds himself feeling entirely connected to nature, to God, and therefore to the people around him. The reverse is also true. When surrounded by a crowd, as in London, he feels lonely and isolated.

When discussing issues with modern childhood and education, the speaker makes the unexpected and ironic argument that luxury and ease are a form of captivity rather than freedom.

The French Revolution is a source of several important ironies. When describing the capricious cruelty of pre-Revolutionary France, the speaker compares the monarchy and nobility to children, making an unexpected link between innocence and cruelty. Later, he witnesses an ironic turn in political events as people who previously fought to upend unjust systems instead jostle to oppress others. Finally, disillusionment leads the speaker into an obsession with reason-driven thinking that is all-consuming, close-minded, and therefore irrational.

Autobiographical poem, epic

The settings of the poem include England's Lake district, France, London, Cambridge University, and the Alps. An autobiographical account of Wordsworth's life, it spans the tail end of the eighteenth century and the start of the nineteenth.

The tone varies: at different points it is yearning, ardent, passionate, awed, and disapproving.

The protagonist is the speaker, while the antagonist is the shallowness and alienation of modern life—embodied by various political oppressors and other cruel actors.

The major conflict in the poem is between the mundane demands of material life and the desire for transcendence and immersion in nature.

It is difficult to pinpoint a single climactic moment for this meandering, multi-part work, but arguably Book Eleventh—in which the speaker undergoes a moral, personal, and political crisis before emerging with a clearer idea of his own destiny—is one.

At the end of Book Third, the speaker notes that the disappointments of life at Cambridge prepared him for adulthood—an observation that foreshadows future problems the speaker will encounter.

In the poem's 1850 edition, Wordsworth foreshadows the eventual (real-life) conflicts between radical French revolutionaries and members of religious orders.

After launching into a diatribe against something (for instance, modern education) or else a passionate defense of something (such as the theater) the speaker will frequently change course by denying the urgency, seriousness, or utility of what he has said. For example, in Book Eleventh, he refers to a worldview that he considers destructive as merely "a taste/Less elevated." These moments serve as understatements, undercutting and juxtaposing his passionate denunciations, tributes, and diagnoses. Through understatement, the speaker anticipates and sympathizes with readers' skepticism, earning their trust.

The text is packed with allusions. Some of the more important ones include: English poet John Milton; English mathematician and early scientist Isaac Newton; Cambridge University; Ancient Greek mathematician Euclid; legendary Ancient Greek poet Homer; English poet Edmund Spenser; the Greek god of nature and flocks Pan; the French Revolutionary figure Maximilien Robespierre; the biblical story of the Tower of Babel; Adam Smith's economic work The Wealth of Nations, and the paleolithic ruin Stonehenge.

Wordsworth often uses voices as synecdoche in order to refer to individuals. For instance, "not a voice was idle" in Book First, or "languages that want the living voice" in Book Sixth. Wordsworth also describes the people of France metonymically as land, writing "the land waxed mad" as a description of a tense and violent cultural moment. He also uses "youth" as metonymy to describe young people, writing "Youth maintains...Communion more direct and intimate/With Nature." When describing his own internal conflicts, he writes that "the eye was master of the heart," with the two body parts as synecdochic representations of sensory and emotional life.

The earth, clouds, seas, the moon, and various other entities of nature are frequently personified. At times that personification is subtle, while at other times—as in a reference to the "old grandame" of earth—it is vivid and fanciful. At all times, it plays into the broader thematic idea that nature is alive, conscious, and full of feeling. Consistently, Wordsworth even refers to nature as "she" or "her." Sometimes the speaker addresses nature or elements of it, as in Book Eleventh when he speaks of "ye brooks," and in Book Thirteenth when he addresses "ye lonely roads."

At other moments, Wordsworth personifies the political entity of the state, suggesting that it is alive and changing rather than static. He also personifies Experience and Authority at various points.

Wordsworth's style is extremely hyperbolic. Examples of this include his comparisons of the human condition to a state of "vassalage" (Book Fifth), and his intense language of praise for nature with phrases like "Praise to the end!" (Book Second). In Book Sixth, he writes that "A thousand hopes / Were mine"—a contrast to Book Eleventh, in which he writes of an "utter loss of hope itself."

Instances of onomatopoeia include "blast," "chattering," "thumping," "lows" (as in, the sound made by cows), and "bleat."