Varying Excerpt From William Wordsworth's The Prelude

The Prelude: Timed Write Re-Write

The preceding excerpt from William Wordsworth's The Prelude conveys a sense of adventure, coupled with the downfall into the sublime, and presents a common day scenario in accordance with naturalistic motifs and dream-like ambience evident in romanticist poetry. The excerpt describes a snippet from Wordsworth's life—an evening ride upon a lonely boat that grows into a fearful encounter upon noticing a peak beyond the horizon, ending with the narrator falling into a troubled demeanor, termed as a "dark solitude". Being such a common day event, readers are engaged by Wordsworth's experience, and can relate to his responses to the naturalistic stimuli that he encounters. The verse form heightens this bond between
As the narrator continues to "lustily" row, he notes that behind his "craggy steep" of a horizon, a second peak, "black and huge", rises as he continues to row, a huge shape that "towered" and seemed to stride after him. Initially, the narrator does not notice the emergence of the second peak, and is displayed as innocent and still engrossed in the dream-like setting of the poem, going on his "play" journey, "lustily" stirring his oars onto adventure; the sudden emergence of the second peak, depicted as huge, tyrannical, and powerful, contrasts heavily with the scene immediately previous, and shatters the "wonderland" constructed by the earlier parts of the poem, effectively changing to passage's displayed tone from dream-like and lethargic to fearful and awe-inspiring. As in the previous scenario, a shift in the passage's tone entails a parallel shift in the narrator's response to the situation—obviously one of fear, as he turns away with "trembling oars", back to the safety of his home. This sudden shift causes confusion and leaves a lasting effect on readers, which is similar to the lasting impression left on
The narrator encounters the boat within a "rocky cave", tied to a "willow tree", his boat leaving "small circles" whose glittering light "melted all into one track" of sparkling light, his view fixated upon the "craggy ridge" which serves as his horizon point. Extensive use of imagery is used to build a lazy-summer scene, and contribute to the dream-like sense the passage conveys—the boat is in a lonely rocky cave, the light shines brightly, the water ripples slowly, the air is still and warm, and the lazy summer drags on, this small diversion only serving as a temporary means to end the happy boredom. The willow foreshadows later sadness, its weeping nature a symbol of the later darkness that is to invade the narrator's being. As the narrator lustily rows his "elfin pinnace", his boat streaming through the water "like a swan", he notes the sudden appearance of a peak "black and huge", that "up reared its head", towering between the narrator and stars. There is a usage of animal metaphors in contrasting the natures of the two events, the innocence and dreaminess of the narrator in his boat characterized by the gracefulness of a swan, whereas the sudden rise of the peak analogized to that of a beast that rears its despicable form, chasing after the swan, and tainting its innocence. As