Hello and welcome to the Discourse. The Prelude is an epic-length autobiographical poem by William Wordsworth published posthumously in 1850. The Prelude has 14 volumes and the first book of The Prelude is titled Childhood and School-Time. The poem traces Wordsworth's life from his childhood in the Lake District, highlighting formative experiences that influenced his poetic development, to his reflections on adulthood and the creative process.
Boat Stealing is an interesting Extract from The Prelude in which the poet emphasizes his relationship with nature and offers two contrasting ideas about nature. In Books 1 and 2, Wordsworth uses personification to describe nature, referring to it as “her” or “she” to allude to the idea of Mother Nature. Wordsworth lost his mother when he was 8 years old and then his father died in 1783 when he was 13 years old. He found solace in nature and considered nature as a parental, guiding figure.
Man and nature have a distinct relationship. Often men consider nature as a treasure to exploit, control, use, and to make it do as we please and to use it to our benefit. On the other hand, some believe that nature is all encompassing superior force that cannot be controlled. In the extract ‘Boat Stealing’, Wordsworth offers both ideas and allows the reader to decide what nature means to him or herself personally.
Structure of ‘Boat Stealing’:
The Prelude is written in blank verse and so is this extract. Thus, there is no rhyming scheme in the 44 lines of this extract from The Prelude while all these lines are written in iambic pentameter. This particular extract, Boat Stealing, is set in the Lake District, an area in northwest England known for its lakes, forests, and mountains. The extract begins with the speaker feeling confident and comfortable in nature, but his mood shifts when he sees the mountain. It is an autobiographical poem and thus, it is safe to assume that the speaker is William Wordsworth himself.
The extract is written in a narrative poetic style with no stanza breaks. It appears like a 44-line long text, a single verse paragraph, written in iambic pentameter (blank verse) without any specific rhyme scheme while the poet used hypotaxis, enjambment, imagery, metaphors, symbolism, simile, and personification.
Summary of ‘Boat Stealing’:
Lines 1-10
“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”
The poet begins by personifying nature as his guide and mentions nature as ‘her’, alluding to the idea of Mother Nature. Here, nature—which refers to the earth, sky, the organic environment, and everything around the speaker—becomes a female figure. This extract is a small part of the much longer Book 1 of The Prelude. In the verse paragraph preceding this one, the speaker personifies nature as a kind of maternal figure that instructs the speaker. Wordsworth uses ‘the boat’ as a symbol to express his innocence at that age, and his naive attitude towards nature. He says that one night, Mother Nature led him to "A little boat tied to a willow tree." He means that all that was happening was spontaneous, as if he was inspired by nature. He didn’t plan to go and find the boat but now he found it. The boat increased his curiosity and a sense of adventure and he decided to take the boat and row in the lake, though he knew, he was not the owner of the boat. He didn’t know where the boat was hidden but nature led him to the boat. In the fourth line, the speaker again uses Personification and mentions the boat as ‘her.’ He untied the boat and rowed it out in the peaceful water of the lake. As he rowed the boat along, he could hear the “mountain echoes” and see the “small circles glittering” as his boat made ripples in the water. He describes the “sparkling light” as it reflected off the surface of the water.
Lines 11-18
“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,”
The speaker describes the moonlight as it reflects and sparkles on the surface of the lake. The speaker, who is a young boy, feels excited as he rows the boat skillfully. It is not a planned escapade and he doesn’t know where he is leading to. Yet, he feels confident as if he knows the destination well. In the same instance, the poet has an idea of where he is heading. He observes ‘a craggy ridge’ and sets his eyes on the high mountain peak, rowing the boat towards it. The craggy ridge is that huge mountain. He describes the high mountain peak as the ‘horizon’s utmost boundary,’ as he is unable to see anything beyond it but ‘stars and the grey sky.’ The poet uses imagery to express a tranquil and beautiful picture of nature and a boy’s ability to engage with it. The boy is proud of his skills at rowing the boat with Elan. He describes the small boat as ‘elfin pinnace,’ that is, an elf's boat. The speaker describes the small boat as magical and fairy-tale-like and he completely controls it, which offers him a sense of exhilaration. He confidently rowed towards the huge peak.
Lines 19-26
“And, as I rose upon the stroke, my boat
Went heaving through the water like a swan;
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,”
As the boy uses his oars to row the boat, he feels in total control of the boat which moves like a swan now towards the destination. The speaker describes the boat as a swan, a living animal, to suggest that the boat is an inherent part of nature itself. The boat symbolizes his innocence and his feeling of oneness with nature.
As he moved forward, he noticed that there was something more awe-inspiring than the ‘craggy ridge’ he noticed before. He sees another ‘huge peak, black and huge.’ As he moves towards the ‘craggy ridge’ his chosen destination, he notices something more high, raising its head from behind the ‘craggy ridge’ as if observing the boy. As the boat continues to move forward, the size of the huge mountain peak appears more formidable. The speaker feels as if the huge peak is a living beast, ‘huge and black’. The speaker is unsure if the huge figure that surpasses the ‘craggy ridge’ is a live frightening beast or another huge, bigger mountain peak.
Lines 26-34
“For so it seemed, with purpose of its own
And measured motion like a living thing,
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”
The speaker was unsure if the frightening black, huge figure appearing to rise from behind his chosen destination was a living beast or not because it appeared as if that black figure was noticing his movements, as if waiting for him like a living beast, to attack and prey over him. The boy was no longer enjoying a peaceful encounter with nature. Now, there was something to fear greatly. He turned his boat around, and made his way back “with trembling oars”. The speaker is no longer confident enough to feel that he controls nature. Even he fails to control the small boat that he was rowing so confidently just a little time ago. The silent water of the lake too appeared to stop him from running back. Anyhow, he reached the same willow tree and tied the boat back to the tree. He still felt that the huge black figure was stalking him as he moved back to his home. He was frightened and serious after what he had seen and felt. The experience the speaker has here reveals that nature is not always man’s friend. In fact, there are mysterious and dangerous beings in nature. Nature is suddenly something not only to be enjoyed but something to be feared. The idea is to suggest that nature is much more powerful than what we expect it to be and though we try to control and exploit it, nature remains beyond our grasp.
Lines 35-44
“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
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 these lines, the speaker expresses the change he felt in himself after that incident. He realized that though he always found himself so near to nature, and considered himself a part of it, he knows very little of it. He had a dark, mysterious intuition that there were forms of existence that he knew nothing about. His thoughts were covered in a kind of darkness; one may call it solitude or empty abandonment. He was unable to feel the same oneness with nature again. After having encountered a part of nature that terrified him, the speaker became aware that he was not in control of nature. He was not able to subdue it and use it to his pleasure.
No recognizable shapes remained in his mind, no nice images of trees, sea, or sky. He couldn't picture the greens of fields. Instead, giant, powerful shapes—that were not alive in the same way that people are alive—moved slowly in his mind during the day. At night, these shapes gave him troubling dreams. This sudden change in his feelings symbolizes the maturation of the kid’s mind as he moves toward adulthood. He has passed from the carefree, fearless days of childhood into the reality of adulthood. Unlike before, he was not sure of his surroundings anymore. He was now keenly aware that he could encounter danger at every turn, and this awareness “hung a darkness” over him and made him feel a “blank desertion”. He now knew that the world was a dangerous place.
The speaker doesn’t make it clear if he encountered some real beast or a sepulcher or if was it just a huge black mountain appearing to move in the darkness. Whatever it was, the incident helped him to grow up and leave his childlike attitude, and to be more cautious.
The extract describes the transformation of the boy from a fearless, carefree boy, to an adult who was aware of the realities of the dangerous world in which he lived. The boat symbolizes his innocence, which he abandoned back at the willow tree. Now he is mature and aware of the struggles of life in the world. The mountain peak that frightened the boy symbolizes nature’s independence from human control. It suggests a sense of scale in which humans are dwarfed by "huge and mighty forms."
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
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