the prelude

William Wordsworth

Published: 1850

Birth – Death: 1770 - 1850

Monarch: Victoria

Prime Minister: John Russel (Whig)

Nationality: English

The Prelude begun in 1799 and was completed in 1805 when it expanded to 14 books. Although, it was published a year after the poet’s death in 1850. Wordsworth worked his way towards modern psychological understanding of his own nature and more broadly of human nature. The subject of the poem is a review by the poet of his life to explain the growth of his mind as a poet. The third episode (our extract) is a summer one of borrowing a boat without permission, rowing out onto a lake alone, and then feeling that the mountains rose in condemnation or disapproval.

who is william wordsworth?

William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet.

William Wordsworth was born on 7th of April 1770 at Cockermouth in Cumbria.

His father was a lawyer. Both Wordsworth’s parents died before he was 15 years old. He and his 4 siblings were left in the care of several other relatives.

As a young adult, Wordsworth had developed a passion for nature, which was reflected onto many of his poems.

Wordsworth studied at Cambridge University and spent a Summer holiday on a walking tour in Switzerland and France. It was then, he became an enthusiast for the ideas of the French Revolution.

He began to write poetry while he was at school, but none were published until 1983.

In 1795, Wordsworth received a legacy (“ A planned future donation to a charity, given through a will or other form of designation”) from a close relative and he and his sister, Dorothy went to live in Dorset.

Two years later, they moved again to Somerset to live near the poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. An admirer of Wordsworth’s work.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge strongly urged Wordsworth to believe in himself as a poet and to use his talent to compose a modern epic poem, Coleridge is given credit for causing Wordsworth to write The Prelude. What Coleridge wanted from Wordsworth was not a poem about his own life, however, but rather a poem about the modern state of philosophy and science.

Coleridge and Wordsworth collaborated on 'Lyrical Ballads', published in 1798. Most of the poems were written by Wordsworth but Coleridge contributed with 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'. This was generally marked the start of the Romantic movement in English poetry. Although, other poets at the time criticised this.

In 1799, after a visit to Germany with Coleridge, Wordsworth and Dorothy settled at Dove Cottage in Grasmere in the Lake District. Coleridge lived nearby with his family.

In 1802, Wordsworth married a childhood friend, Mary Hutchinson.

The next few years were personally difficult for Wordsworth. Two of his children died, his brother was drowned at sea and Dorothy suffered a mental breakdown.

His political views underwent a transformation around the turn of the century, and he became increasingly conservative due to Napoleon Bonaparte ruling.

In 1813, Wordsworth moved from Grasmere to nearby Ambelside.

He continued to write poetry, but it was never as great as his earlier works. After 1835, he wrote slightly more.

In 1842, he was given a government pension and the following year became poet Laureate. A poet Laureate is a respected poet who is appointed as a member of the British royal household.

Wordsworth died on 23 April 1850 from Pleurisy (inflammation of the layers that cover the lungs) and was buried in Grasmere churchyard.

What is: the prelude?

Wordsworth began The Prelude in 1798, at the age of 28, and continued to work on it throughout his life.

He never gave it a title, but called it the "Poem (title not yet fixed upon) to Coleridge".

In his letters to Dorothy Wordsworth (his sister) he referred to it as "the poem on the growth of my own mind".

The poem was unknown to the general public until the final version was published three months after Wordsworth's death in 1850. Its present title was given by his widow Mary.

There are 3 versions of the poem: The 1799 Prelude (Two-Part Prelude), The 1805 Prelude, found by Ernest de Sélincourt in 1926 as 13 books and lastly The 1850 Prelude published shortly after Wordsworth’s death as 14 books.

Wordsworth had been "polishing the style and qualifying some of its radical statements about the divine sufficiency of the human mind in its communion with nature".

It was intended to be a prologue to a long 3-part philosophical poem, The Recluse.

Wordsworth initially intended for this to be a collaboration between him and Samuel Taylor Coleridge to surpass John Milton’s Paradise Lost.

If the Recluse had been completed, it would have been about three times longer than Paradise Lost (33,000 lines versus 10,500).

In his introduction to the version of 1850 Wordsworth explains that the original idea, inspired by his "dear friend" Coleridge, was "to compose a philosophical Poem, containing views of Man, Nature, and Society, and to be entitled the Recluse; as having for its principal subject, the sensations and opinions of a poet living in retirement".

This autobiographical poem is: the poet’s confession, growth in mind and strength, childhood into manhood, an understanding of life, creativity, nature, human complexity and philosophy and self-discovery.

society & politics

The French Revolution made a clear impact of Wordsworth’s political views. Although in 1837 Queen Victoria was crowned as Queen. In her reign, Victorian Britain was politically conservative.

Few things united the English middle and upper classes more than their hatred of revolutionary violence.

The revolution gave women an opportunity to work and earn money, thus changing the old beliefs. Working women not only shared the burden of earning money but it also gave them a sense of security. Their lives were no longer restricted to the house and children.