Extract from the Prelude

Question 1

One summer evening (led by her)

Answer 1

Power of nature’s coercion

Naive, passivity, sinister undertones, foreboding of “led” being out of the persona’s control

Ambiguity of “her” creates alternate interpretation of Mother Nature - Romantic poet

Question 2

Small circles glittering idly in the moon

Answer 2

Calm, tranquil visual imagery contrasts later on in the poem

Glittering connotes to innocence and peace

Question 3

With an unswerving line

Answer 3

Control, power, certainty

Question 4

Silent lake … Silent water

Answer 4

Cyclical structure highlighting how the peace of the silence changes to the uncomfortable, feared nature of the silence

Question 5

Was nothing but the stars and the grey sky.

Answer 5

Highlights the loss of innocence as stars symbolises heaven = Nothing in the way of that

Question 6

heaving through the water like a swan

Answer 6

Paradoxical zoomorphic imagery

Question 7

huge peak, black and huge

Answer 7

Repetition may symbolise surprise
Unsettling, disconcerting, foreboding, emphasising fear through the intimidating connotations

Question 8

instinct… upreared… like a living thing / Strode

Answer 8

Industrial revolution = Personified as the great black peak?

Animalistic, Dominance, Predatory, Confrontational connotations of upreared
Sudden, Harsh, Powerful, Violent

Question 9

struck and struck again

Answer 9

Repetition
Fear, struggle, desparation, escape

Question 10

grim shape

Answer 10

Grim reaper = Death imagery, foreboding, dread

Question 11

hung a darkness

Answer 11

Metaphor to highlight looming everprescence of doubts

Question 12

were a trouble to my dreams

Answer 12

Sleep disturbed -> Unconscious also disturbed
- Tranquility + mental stability
- Overwhelming and all-consuming
- Juxtaposes ‘troubled pleasure’ -> physical exertion vs mental and psychological disturbance

Question 13

towered up between me and the stars

Answer 13

Subversion of fate
stars = Heaven

Lack of stars = In the dark = Fear of the unknown, dominance of the darkness highlighting the power of nature over the persona and subversion of holy concepts

Question 14

no familiar shapes
no pleasant images
no colours of green fields;

Answer 14

Finality ;
Repetition highlights obsession, complete absence of any form of joy highlighting how all-consuming their dread is

Question 15

What kind of poem was Wordsworth

Answer 15

Romantic
Protesting against changing world due to industrialisation