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FROM THE PRELUDE BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH The poem starts with a very calm, placid and serene mood but ends with a sense of foreboding in the poet, and with a sense of loss of creativity. The poem is remarkable for its simple thought, lucid language and pictorial quality and it reflects an important event concerning Wordsworth's childhood and life. The poem opens with a picture of a moon-blanched summer evening. The poet is found to be in a happy mood. He confesses the act of stealth after having stolen a boat tied to a willow tree within a rocky cave, its usual home. He is not supposed to take the boat and in this he feels troubled pleasure.
There is the lurking feeling of doing something deliciously wrong. He rowed the boat and it moved on, leaving behind it either side, small circles of water shining in the reflection of the silvery moonlight. These small water ripples finally melted, giving way to a single track of sparkling light. However, like a man proud of his skill the poet moved forward to reach a chosen point, he fixed his eyes on top of an uneven mountain ridge. It seemed to be the horizons utmost boundary.
Amidst such a splendid scenario, the lovely boat of the poet seemed to have a fairy-like appearance. He dipped the oars lustily into the tranquil lake. His boat moved forward like a swan. He suddenly trembled with fear, encountering the strange sight of an enormous black peak that rose from behind the top of the uneven mountain range.
It seemed to the poet that it were a human being who upreared its head with a purpose of its own. The grim shape, growing larger in size, seemed to stand between the poet and the stars. The poet feared that it strode after him with measured motion like a living thing. With oars trembling in his hand, the poet at once retreated from that place to reach the covert of the willow tree. The appearance of such a huge black image shattered the beauty and calmness of the scenario as well as the poets thought process and creativity. As he went back home, he was in a grave and serious mood.
This spectacle remained in his mind for long. He seemed to be surrounded with blackness and emptiness. According to him, his creative muse was dead but it could also be solitude. The rock becomes a symbol of the authors block. The familiar shapes of the beauty of nature do not appear to him anymore. He does not see colour but huge and mighty forms that do not live like living men and exist like the non-living.
He is unable to appreciate the living force that lies within nature and those around him. He exists but his heart has become cold and numb. This fear and sadness of his own creativity's death troubles him even in his dreams. He longs to return to that untouched bliss.
The living fail to inspire him and he is trapped in a state of ennui. For Wordsworth, poetry is everything and if his creativity is lost, his soul is dead. This instance becomes, in a way, good for him because this helps him to question himself. This is the first stage of the re-awakening of the soul, to explore further and look deeper. This is the stage in which he has to go through the trauma and agony of the acceptance of his problem. Primarily a poet of Nature, Wordsworth conceives nature in a spiritual angle.
He is the poet-priest in the temple of Nature and in his poetry, Nature with all its tranquility comes first. This excerpt from The Prelude has a style which is very fluid and natural. The language too is simple enough to captivate even the heart of a common man.
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Research essay sample on Uneven Mountain Willow Tree Poet
