“The Prelude” by William Wordsworth
Smells Like: Poetry, William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth
A behemoth of a poem, The Prelude is essentially a philosophical autobiography in blank verse, the story of the growth of the poet’s mind. In the course of the poem, Wordsworth explores his own imagination as worthy fodder of an epic.The poem evolves out of Wordsworth’s overarching metaphor that life’s journey is a circular one whose end is “to arrive where we started / And know that place for the first time” (T. S. Eliot, Little Gidding, lines 241-42). The poem dramatizes several journeys, both literal and figurative, through which Wordsworth tries to reconstitute hope in a dark time.
The Google Books edition is more than 250 pages, so better leave this one for a long weekend or holiday. But please make time for it. It is even richer than Whitman’s “Song of Myself.” As long English poems go, “The Prelude” is the most insightful look at the human condition of the past three centuries.
By Tom Fasano on November 29, 2009 – 8:36 pm
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