The first two books of The Prelude describe the speaker's early attachment to the natural beauty of his native Lake District, in the north of England. Here, nature appears as a benevolent but extremely powerful force. The speaker (who shares much with Wordsworth himself, but who can be seen as a distinct, imaginative persona in his own right) advances the pantheistic idea that God and nature are inseparable. He also argues that nature, having been established as an important part of his life early on, remains an ever-present element of his work and worldview. This in itself plays into another Romantic interest: childhood. Wordsworth advances a typically Romantic idea that an individual's childhood influences and experiences continue to shape them throughout their lives. In Book Third, the speaker leaves home to attend Cambridge. He experiences a degree of culture shock as, separated from the rustic surroundings of his childhood, he confronts an atmosphere of pretension and inauthenticity. At the same time, he is thrilled to be in a place that once was home to his heroes, including poets like John Milton. In Book Fourth, the speaker returns home from Cambridge for summer vacation, reencountering the beloved landscape of his youth through newly appreciative and yet newly distant eyes. This book also contains a famous scene in which the speaker encounters a sickly soldier and helps him to a shelter for the night.
Book Fifth is altogether different from the previous four. Instead of focusing on the facts of Wordsworth's life, it is concerned with the ephemerality of mankind's great works of art when compared to the immortality of nature. The speaker is severely distressed by this mismatch, but also argues that books and poetry are one of the most suitable ways for people to express the strong emotions that nature can induce. In Book Sixth, the speaker quickly describes the end of his years at Cambridge, and introduces two important characters. One is his sister, Dorothy. The other is Samuel Taylor Coleridge, to whom the book is addressed—for the first time, Wordsworth directly alludes to Coleridge's role as his intended audience. The speaker then describes a walking tour of the French Alps, which took place at the peak of the Revolution and was full of joyful celebration. Next, in Book Seventh, the speaker discusses a period when he was living in London. He found certain elements of London exciting, but was distressed by the city's crowdedness, anonymity, and distance from nature. In Book Eighth, rather than describe new events, the speaker looks back and explains in more detail how an early exposure to nature shaped his poetic sensibilities, and how the harsh landscapes of Britain offer a certain inspiration distinct from the pleasant, warm nature of the Mediterranean.
Book Ninth describes the speaker's move to France, where he befriended a pro-Revolution soldier and witnessed firsthand the injustices that led to the overturning of the monarchy. He recounts in detail the story of a young couple torn apart by the social conservatism and hierarchy of pre-revolutionary France. In Book Tenth, the speaker grapples with the radical phase of the French Revolution, denouncing the violence of Robespierre and his allies, and remembering fondly the moment when he learned that Robespierre had died. Continuing this thread in Book Tenth, the speaker describes how his political disillusionment led him to mistakenly embrace an overly skeptical, self-satisfied rationalist philosophy. Here, Wordsworth also mentions Coleridge's departure for Italy, where he is spending time in order to rehabilitate his health. Book Thirteenth describes the process by which the speaker recovered his connection with nature and his lively imagination after his flirtation with severe rationalism. It recounts the speaker's return to the rural areas where he grew up, which enabled this recovery of imaginative power. Finally, Book Fourteenth articulates a philosophy of love in which the love of individual people and universal, divine love work in conjunction. It also acknowledges those who have helped Wordsworth, from his sister to Coleridge to a friend who helped fund his writing. In this concluding book, Wordsworth voices the hope that his poem will stand the test of time and that its writing will prove to have been justified.
