A study of the development in Wordsworth's use of some central images in the Prelude, I-VI

Abstract

This is a study of the development in some aspects of Wordsworth's poetic vision as they are reflected in certain central images in the early and later texts of The Prelude, I-VI. Chapter I deals with images of Nature which portray it as a great mother, and imply man's need to depend on it for emotional food; most of these images are removed from the 185O Prelude. Chapter II deals with other removed images which reflect the poet's early panentheism. In Chapter III the changes introduced in Nature imagery are discussed: in revising his poem, Wordsworth deprives Nature of its maternal role, stressing its outward beauties; he also removes many panentheistic images, adding others intended to suggest a belief in orthodox religion. The added images are mainly elaborate and complex, many being highly wrought metaphors and personifications, whilst most of the early images are simple, direct and swift shifting similes. Chapter IV deals with the removed images of childhood which contribute to a glorified image of the child in the 1805 text of that poem. The last chapter concerns images of movement and stillness, and the effect of the removal and addition of these on the style of both versions of The Prelude. It has been found that the revision, although it has profited the text in many ways, has affected certain images and views characteristic of the poet's great period, the years 1798-1807, and has led to inconsistencies in the poetic vision expressed in the final Prelude.