There are fifteen poems in the GCSE Power & Conflict anthology.

For your exam, you will be given one poem in full, printed on the page, and you will be asked to compare this poem to another from the anthology.

All of the GCSE English Literature course is closed-book, meaning that you will need to learn at least three lines from each poem.

It is possible to get top marks for this question by making sure that you know the following:

• What the poem is about

• What the poem means

• The methods the poet uses to convey their message

• The links between the ideas of other poems in the anthology

Synposis

Whatever the question is, it is important that you understand what the poem is about. This will support you in adapting your argument to fit the focus of the question. This section includes:

• A general overview of the poem

• A detailed look at the poem line-by-line

• Analysis of the poem, giving William Wordsworth’s intention and message

A General Overview of the Poem

The Prelude (excerpt) explores the power that nature can exert over the life of human beings confronted with its majesty and enormous scale. The speaker, Wordsworth himself (as the full poem is considered autobiographical), relates a boat trip taken, a reflection on the awesomeness of nature, and a subsequent reflection on its lasting effect on the sensibilities of a young poet. The poem depicts the stirring impact of nature and the concept of the Burkean Sublime.

Line-by-Line

One summer evening (led by her) I found

A little boat tied to a willow tree

Within a rocky cove, its usual home.

Straight I unloosed her chain, and stepping in

Pushed from the shore. It was an act of stealth

And troubled pleasure, nor without the voice

Of mountain-echoes did my boat move on;

Leaving behind her still, on either side,

Small circles glittering idly in the moon,

Until they melted all into one track

Of sparkling light. But now, like one who rows,

The first lines of the excerpt are not the first lines of the full poem, and so the ambiguity of “(led by her)” need not be so. The pronoun “her” refers in fact to Nature personified – explicitly stated in lines not included in the excerpt but also easily inferred by a reader – and gives us our first impression that the speaker is likely a Romantic: moved, figuratively and literally, by nature. The “One summer evening” opening gives an impression of lightness and inconsequential events. The connection between the natural imagery, “willow” and “rocky cove”, and the abstract noun “home” add to the sense of nature’s general harmony.

That said, there are at least subtle forebodings of something not being as harmonious as it seems. The need for “stealth”, the oxymoronic “troubled pleasure”, and the perturbing “mountain-echoes”, combine to render the speaker himself the evident source of any discord in the scene. Indeed, it was he who “unloosed” the boat from “its usual home”, disrupting the harmony of not only the boat but the waters that would otherwise be “glittering idly”. What’s more, the boat being given the same title (“she”) as Nature (“her”), has undertones of disrespect for nature.

Of sparkling light. But now, like one who rows,

Proud of his skill, to reach a chosen point

With an unswerving line, I fixed my view

Upon the summit of a craggy ridge,

The horizon's utmost boundary; far above

Was nothing but the stars and the grey sky.

She was an elfin pinnace; lustily

I dipped my oars into the silent lake,

And, as I rose upon the stroke, my boat

Went heaving through the water like a swan;

In the next section, there is a sense of borderline arrogance from the speaker, further enhancing this sense of him clashing with nature. The boat is now “my boat”, and he is “Proud of his skill” as he rows with “an unswerving line” and a “fixed [...] view”. His movements are deft (“I dipped my oars into the silent lake”) and indulgent (“lustily”) as well as powerful (sending the boat “heaving through the water like a swan”). He views himself as harmonious with nature, but there is a sense of foreboding, given his growing pride. 

At this stage, the “chosen point” (which will have an unchosen impact) is the “summit of a craggy ridge, / The horizon’s utmost boundary” – an unremarkable image, for now. As keen-eyed readers, we expect something to emerge from that ridge, given the poet’s focus on it, creating a sense of anticipation (and given the context, apprehension) about that destination. 

When, from behind that craggy steep till then

The horizon's bound, a huge peak, black and huge,

As if with voluntary power instinct,

Upreared its head. I struck and struck again,

And growing still in stature the grim shape

Towered up between me and the stars, and still,

For so it seemed, with purpose of its own

And measured motion like a living thing,

Strode after me. With trembling oars I turned,

The destination point, “that craggy steep”, is called upon once more – this time with foreboding clauses like “from behind [it]” and “till then [it was] The horizon’s bound” – building anticipation before the startling reveal that is the heart of the poem: “a huge peak, black and huge [...] Upreared its head”. This is the first moment of the poem during which nature is explicitly threatening, its personification unmistakably malevolent (“with voluntary power instinct”) and its scale so threatening as to render the speaker inarticulate and repetitive (“huge [...] and huge”).

As the speaker grows closer, the “grim shape” proceeds to “grow[...] in stature” until “Tower[ing] up between [him] and the stars”. Once again, it is personified as a threat, that “Strode after” him, with “purpose of its own / And measured motion like a living thing”. This is the turning point of the poem and represents the climax. From this point, it is all reaction and reflection.

Strode after me. With trembling oars I turned,

And through the silent water stole my way

Back to the covert of the willow tree;

There in her mooring-place I left my bark,—

And through the meadows homeward went, in grave

And serious mood; but after I had seen

Shaken, the speaker flees: with “trembling oars”, “st[ealing]” his way back to the “covert of the willow tree” before “le[aving his] bark” and proceeding “through the meadows homeward”, his mood both “grave” and “serious”. After the initial “trembling” of his oars, the speaker’s tone is serious and melancholy, rather than fearful, indicating that the mode has changed to reflection. It will remain in that mode for the remainder of the poem.

And serious mood; but after I had seen

That spectacle, for many days, my brain

Worked with a dim and undetermined sense

Of unknown modes of being; o'er my thoughts

There hung a darkness, call it solitude

Or blank desertion. No familiar shapes

This penultimate section of the poem sees the speaker reflecting on the “spectacle” that was the huge peak and the place it occupies in his head and affects how his “brain / Work[s]”. There is a semantic field of obscurity, showing his confusion: “dim”, “undetermined”, “unknown”, “darkness”, “blank”. He feels, for the “many days” after the spectacle, that he has faced “desertion” by the positive images he is normally accustomed to in his existing relationship with nature – which we take to be largely positive.

Or blank desertion. No familiar shapes

Remained, no pleasant images of trees,

Of sea or sky, no colours of green fields;

But huge and mighty forms, that do not live

Like living men, moved slowly through the mind

By day, and were a trouble to my dreams.

In the final section, the speaker confirms that the images of the peak have subsumed all positive images of nature in his mind. All that was “familiar” and “pleasant”, like “trees”, “sea”, “sky”, or “green fields”, anymore “Remained”. Instead, the “huge and mighty forms” occupy his “mind / By day” and at night, proving a “trouble to [his] dreams”. The vastness and obscurity of the peak, and the imagined “forms” like it, have corrupted the innocent speaker’s impressions of the natural world.

Writer’s Methods

This section aims to support your revision by providing you with concrete and clear examples of methods that William Wordsworth uses. 

Remember: methods support meaning, not the other way round. You will gain more marks focusing your essays on the big ideas of the poems and then supporting these ideas with the methods that the writer uses.

Form

The poem lacks the majority of the features of recognisable poetry, being in free verse form: little in the way of meter and no rhyme. Its poetic sensibility is achieved by the use of initial capitalisation and regular line length, as well as the generally elevated style of the language. The prose-like diction lends a narrative style that suits the confessional and autobiographical nature of the poem.

Structure

The poem excerpt is one long and unbroken stanza. It is cyclical in nature, with the speaker commencing by finding the boat by the willow and proceeding across the silent water, before returning across the silent water to that willow. Approximately 20 lines build toward the climax and approximately 20 more retreat from and reflect on that climax — that climax being the revelation of the huge peak.

Language

The language falls into two coexisting but clashing categories regarding attitudes to nature. First, there is the typical Romantic adulation of nature: “Small circles glittering idly in the moon, / Until they melted all into one track / Of sparkling light”. Then, there is the sublime awe and fear of nature: “huge and mighty forms, that do not live / Like living men”.

Context

At MyEdSpace, we use this analogy to discuss context – ketchup, salt and chips.

If you ordered a portion of chips, and asked for salt, you wouldn’t then dump the salt into the corner of your chips and start dipping each individual chip into the salt. 

When you put salt on your chips, you sprinkle it over, sparingly, so as to give a good coverage of salt across the chips as a whole. Context is just like salt on chips. 

Context is not ketchup – because it would be appropriate to squeeze ketchup into the corner of your plate and dip each chip in (and in fact, that is advised).

So when you’re including contextual information in your essays, sprinkle it across the essay, just like you sprinkle salt on your chips.

Let’s link the context to the key ideas and themes of the poem.

The Sublime

Wordsworth was yet another Romantic poet, whose focus on nature was not just celebratory but reverent; he fully endorsed the concept of The (Burkean) Sublime, the idea that nature can be “beautiful” when harmonious but “sublime” or jarring and disturbing when huge and powerful. 

The Whole Poem

This excerpt comes from an incredibly long poem (approx. 7-8,000 lines, of which we have 44, or less than 1%, here) that narrated his autobiography, or development into a man and poet, meaning that this poem is autobiographical, and this moment was life-changing.

Comparison

You are required to write an essay in your exam that is a comparison of the ideas and themes explored in two poems from the Power & Conflict anthology. Therefore, it is very important to revise the poems in pairs and to enter the exam with an idea of what poem you will choose to compare once you know what the named poem is.

The Prelude (excerpt) and Storm on the Island

Both poems explore the phenomenal power and majesty of nature. Both poems depict the human response to confrontations with this awesome force. However, The Prelude focuses on the internal and psychological impacts of a less-than-friendly natural image, whilst Storm on the Island dwells more lengthily on the physical repercussions of being faced with the oppressive side of nature.

Similarity:

Both poems have the speakers being disconcerted by nature.

Evidence and Analysis 

Wordsworth’s poem explores an inner sense of overwhelm and perturbation after the boat trip. The speaker’s oars are “trembling” as he “st[eals his] way / Back” to safety, and the confrontation remains a long-term “trouble to [his] dreams”, signalling a change that has come over him, with this horror supplanting all “familiar shapes” and “pleasant images” that he formerly had associated with the natural world. 

Heaney’s poem details the islanders’ habitual but nevertheless vulnerable reactions to the force of the storms that characterise island life. The phrase “[something] you fear” recurs several times, and the speaker and his companions must “sit tight”, even though they “are prepared”. The grammar renders them helpless: “fear[ing]” and “sit[ting] tight” being non-dynamic and “[being] prepared” being a state rather than an action.

Difference:

The poets present different manifestations of ‘damage’ caused by nature’s threats.

Evidence and Analysis

In William Wordsworth’s poem, it is the poet’s psyche, not his body nor his home, that is affected by his experience.

In his poem, the speaker is free to ‘escape’ the “huge peak”, rendering it a “spectacle” rather than a ‘confrontation’, meaning it impacts him only psychologically. He is depressed (“o’er [his] thoughts / There hung a darkness”) and anxious (“Huge and mighty forms [...] moved [...] through the mind [...] and were a trouble to [his] dreams”) in the wake of his experience – but essentially unharmed. 

Contrastingly, Seamus Heaney’s poem sees the very physical impact of the storm on the island.

In his poem, the storm is active and violent, leaving the island reeling. The speaker employs an overtly military lexicon to characterise the impact of the storm: “full / Blast”, “exploding”, “wind div[ing] / And straf[ing]”, “salvo”, and “bombarded”. Whilst no damage is detailed, it is clear that the storm’s purpose is patently malicious – and whilst there is “fear”, the impact is more physical than emotional.