The Prelude: Or, Growth of a Poet's Mind (text of 1805)The Prelude, Wordsworth's great autobiographical poem, is crucial to our understanding of his life and poetry. This epic work covers the experiences of Wordsworth's boyhood and his poetic development; his debt to literature; the awakening of his passionate interest in man; his hopes and despair for the French Revolution; his life in London and in the country, the highs and lows of his career; his relationship with his sister Dorothy and his friendship with Coleridge. Through The Prelude Wordsworth was at last free to devote his life to its true vocation and to record his gratitude for the gift which brought him that freedom. Written between 1798 and 1805, it was first published posthumously in 1850 after intensive revision in Wordsworth's later years. This volume contains the original 1805 text edited from manuscripts with a comprehensive introduction and notes. |
Contents
Introduction Childhood and SchoolTime I | 1 |
SchoolTime continued | 20 |
Residence at Cambridge | 34 |
Summer Vacation | 53 |
Books | 67 |
Cambridge and the Alps | 87 |
Residence in London | 105 |
RetrospectLove of Nature Leading to Love of Mankind | 126 |
Residence in France | 151 |
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Common terms and phrases
appear'd Beaupuy beauty behold beneath BOOK Brougham Castle Buttermere call'd Child clouds Coleridge Cottage crags deep delight Dorothy Dorothy Wordsworth doth dream early earth Ernest de Selincourt eyes faith fancy fear feeling felt France Friend Girondist Godwin Goslar Grasmere groves happy hath Hawkshead heart heaven Helvellyn hence hills hope hour human labour Lake later less lines living look'd lov'd Lyrical Ballads Milton mind mountains Nature Nature's never night o'er Paradise Lost pass'd passage passion Patterdale Peel Castle Penrith plain pleasure poem poet poet's poetic poetry Prelude Racedown reason Recluse Robespierre rock Salisbury Plain sate scene seem'd sense September massacres sight silent solitude soul speak spirit stood summer sweet thee theme things Thou thought Tintern Abbey trees truth Twas Vale Vaudracour verse visited voice walk wind Windermere woods words Wordsworth written youth