Wordsworth Romanticism in The Prelude Book 1

Poetic Development of Mind– The poetic development of the mind is associated with the process of the recollection of the past childhood experiences. The poet recalls the River and the stream of “Derwent” which is near to his childhood house which “compos’d my thoughts” and provides the sense of “knowledge” that exists within the walls of “hills and groves”. The knowledge becomes important as it is the knowledge of understanding his own self , identity and the pantheistic experience he had in his childhood. It becomes clearer that the recollection of past experiences projects the poet’s connection with the natural world and his maturity. He enjoyed wandering among the cliffs late night. The development of poetic mind is beautifully expressed in these lines ” The mind of Man is fram’d even like the breath/And harmony of music. There is a dark/ Invisible workmanship that reconciles/ Discordant elements, and makes them move/ In one society.” The lines suggest that the mind of a person even breathes and move dynamically and spontaneously like the harmony of music where there is a craftsmanship inside the mind that reconciles with the elements perceived by the objective world to produce a work of art. Wordsworth poetic sublimity is clearly expressed in this lines “The elements of feeling and of thought,/
And sanctifying, by such discipline,/ Both pain and fear, until we recognize/ A grandeur in the beatings of the heart”. It his sublimity because he invokes the Spirit and Wisdom of the universe that gives shape and life to the various images of his experiences with “high objects” which is purifies his feelings and sanctify him into a grandeur state or sublime state in his beating heart. As the poem progresses, Wordsworth points out to the idea of solitary cliffs and hills which seems to connect him when he was in a complete solitude. It connects back to the experience in the Shepherd’s Boat that reflects the mystery of the mind and how the mind itself swings back and forth from the present to the past as he still recalls back the experience while he still was progressing and enjoying the life. Wordsworth also highlights his purpose that he would record his experiences in his mind so that it would become the “unfading recollections” at the present which reflects Romantic spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings recollected in the state of tranquility. The development of poetic sensibility is again seen in the poem where he recollects the idea of state of excitement in collision with the objects where memories of childhood are imbued in it. He reflects that even the forgotten joys and pleasures seems to be reflected as if the nature spoke to him about it in the collision of objects that shrouds back his memories and “Impregnate and to elevate the state of mind” and even if these experiences seems to diminish it is reflected again and over again with repeated experiences.

Humanism and Individualism– There is an element of humanism in the poem. Wordsworth believed that it is the feelings and emotions that makes human beings a human and hence he gives more importance towards human feelings. In the poem, the poet states that the feelings and emotions that have combined and entered into his mind in the very state of tranquility. Wordsworth Prelude Book 1 stresses on human emotions which is also another aspect of his poetic creativity where he narrates his own subjective truth of his individual self. Individual self becomes important for him and he reflects back his own self of childhood experiences in the lapse of his birthplace. He seeks the truth about his own self that the “extrinsic passion” which made him to love the natural world has changed him into more of a philosophical truth where these passions that he recollects in his state of mind and calm existence belongs to “To those first-born affinities that fit/Our new existence to existing things,/And, in our dawn of being, constitute/ The bond of union betwixt life and joy.”

Self- Reflection– The self-reflection is another essence of Romanticism. The poet reflects back his own image of childhood and the person he was when he was a child. When he was in his birthplace, he recalls back the memories he went to the solitary hills in isolation and wondered whether he has plundered the peace of the world beneath that exists within this realms. He reflects back the frosty season when the sun was set and it was the best happy days of his life and a “time of rapture” for him. He compared his enthusiasm to an “untired horse” reflecting a sense of innocent child and childhood dynamism. He reflects back that it was the happy days which was not idle for he went through “darkness” and the cold hunting hares. He reflects back to Sands of Westmoreland where he wonders how the passions or excitement of experiences in the natural world imbued in his tender thoughts of his childhood memories as if a stranger has been linked to him where he is “unconscious” and gave him no peculiar sense of its state of purpose and pleasure that is associated with him. He is reflecting back his own childhood self who was lacked maturity at that time. He reflects back and bids goodbye to his friend which the nature itself that it has brought feelings of his former years and helped him shape now into manhood to matured person at present where he highlights how these recollections of past memorial experiences brought him a sense of self realization that these experiences brings visionary things, sweet sensations and even help visualize the life of a childhood as a depicted scene in the mind of a poet.

Mysticism– The mysticism is an important aspect of the poem. The poet seems to feel the supernatural force of a being or an entity when he went into a Skiff with a Shepherd’s Boat but he was unable to loosen the tied boat and noticed that it was not the echoes of the mountains that loosen the tied but the push of some Mighty force. This recollection of childhood experiences he had is taken to a higher order which one can say it as a pantheism. As a child , he reflects back and highlights his unknown knowledge for it troubled him in his sleep.

Organic Unity– The idea of organic unity and becoming one with the natural world is traced back in the poem. He rhetorically asks the presence of nature and the beautiful hills and rivers that employ in him haunting him like a wild nightmare in his dreams in his boyish sports illuminating the feelings of fear, danger and desire as his childhood experiences among the lapse of nature is wild, pantheistic , danger as it was cold, cliffs and beautiful with a strong desire of calm sate of mind. This traces early back to the idea of organic unity where the poet was deeply connected with the world of nature. He recalls back his childhood notions that he fell in love with the nature with his “extrinsic passions” that embodied in his boyish wit which made him to love about the world of nature.

Pleasure – The pleasure which Wordsworth highlights can be pain , sorrow, joy , sadness and any other human emotions. In Book 1 , the poet states that the recollection of conscious beauty of River streams from his childhood place tempers away the human “waywardness” and subtracts away the weight of the world giving him a sense of pleasure. There is a personification of the beauteous River to a companion or a friend of the poet’s childhood which flows directly from the towers of Cockermouth where the poet visualizes that he enjoyed bathing in the river stream and basked again and again on the summer days among the lapse of natural inhabitants of groves and hills imagining that he had been born on Indian plains. This clearly reflects a sense of pleasure the poet is recalling back from the childhood experiences.