Page 11 - KNG 2020 issue 2 nov 2020 v4_Neat

AN EXTRACT FROM: THE PRELUDE
CONTEXT
• The prelude presents two contrasting ideas about nature and allows
the reader to decide what nature means to him or herself personally.
• Wordsworth’s prelude explores his childhood thoughts and the
ways in which he has changed and grown over time.
• This portion begins with the speaker as a boy and explores his
feelings of peace with nature. Then, an event occurs which changes the
speaker’s feelings toward the world. This represents the boy coming to an
age of understanding the dangers of the world.
• Wordsworth was a great Romantic poet - a movement interested in
emotion, nature and a mystical connection with a higher power.
• Raised amid the mountains of Cumberland alongside the River
Derwent, Wordsworth grew up in a rustic society, and spent a great deal
of his time playing outdoors,
• Part of the extract talks about the horrors and dangers of nature as
his farther died in freezing conditions when he was a young boy.
• He was orphaned as a boy and later encountered the French
Revolution, which shaped many of his poems (became a revolutionist)

Poppy Powell did an amazing poetry criticism project. This is just a small part of it.

KNG-2020 11