GCSE English Literature (poetry): Below The Green Corrie and Extract from the Prelude
Poem Comparison The Prelude and Below the Green Corrie
In ‘Extract from The Prelude’, William Wordsworth attempts to explore and understand how his perception of nature and the world in general has been influenced by an event in which he ‘found a small boat tied to a willow tree’. At first rowing confidently upon the loch, the sight of a mountain peak from behind a ‘craggy steep’ scares him and he races back to safety where he returns home in a ‘serious and grave mood’. This memory haunts him in his dreams for years to come. Similarly, in ‘Below the Green Corrie’, Norman MacCaig recalls a time when he was climbing in his beloved Scottish highlands. The surrounding mountainous landscape initially threatened him, however, unlike in ‘Extract from The Prelude’, he realises that his experience was inspiring and ‘enriched his life’. Both poets use techniques to convey the ways in which these similar events had dramatic and contrasting effects on the voices of the poem that last a lifetime.
Firstly, both poets use repetition to explain the positive and negative effects the places describe have on the speakers. MacCaig explains that the mountains were ‘full of threats, full of thunders’. The repetition of ‘full’ here exaggerates the menace and potential threat from the mountains. The fact that MacCaig is intimidated by the mountains in shown further by the use of pathetic fallacy in which the stormy weather conditions described suggest the unpleasant, scared feelings infused within him. Moreover, MacCaig’s use of alliteration and repeated ‘th’ sound creates a frightening atmosphere in which the repeated structure suggests that the danger is everywhere. In this way, MacCaig highlights that this place makes him feel very intimidated, with the menacing nature of the peaks being a threat he can’t escape from.
Akin to this, Wordsworth emphasises the threat of the mountain, describing ‘a huge peak, black and huge’. The repetition of ‘huge’ increases the intimidating
In ‘Extract from The Prelude’, William Wordsworth attempts to explore and understand how his perception of nature and the world in general has been influenced by an event in which he ‘found a small boat tied to a willow tree’. At first rowing confidently upon the loch, the sight of a mountain peak from behind a ‘craggy steep’ scares him and he races back to safety where he returns home in a ‘serious and grave mood’. This memory haunts him in his dreams for years to come. Similarly, in ‘Below the Green Corrie’, Norman MacCaig recalls a time when he was climbing in his beloved Scottish highlands. The surrounding mountainous landscape initially threatened him, however, unlike in ‘Extract from The Prelude’, he realises that his experience was inspiring and ‘enriched his life’. Both poets use techniques to convey the ways in which these similar events had dramatic and contrasting effects on the voices of the poem that last a lifetime.
Firstly, both poets use repetition to explain the positive and negative effects the places describe have on the speakers. MacCaig explains that the mountains were ‘full of threats, full of thunders’. The repetition of ‘full’ here exaggerates the menace and potential threat from the mountains. The fact that MacCaig is intimidated by the mountains in shown further by the use of pathetic fallacy in which the stormy weather conditions described suggest the unpleasant, scared feelings infused within him. Moreover, MacCaig’s use of alliteration and repeated ‘th’ sound creates a frightening atmosphere in which the repeated structure suggests that the danger is everywhere. In this way, MacCaig highlights that this place makes him feel very intimidated, with the menacing nature of the peaks being a threat he can’t escape from.
Akin to this, Wordsworth emphasises the threat of the mountain, describing ‘a huge peak, black and huge’. The repetition of ‘huge’ increases the intimidating