The Prelude

Authors Avatar

                                                                                10/10/07

The Prelude

“One Evening” is a poem about Wordsworth, as a school boy, who is on holiday by the shores of Patterdale. The poem is set as the title suggests in the evening. “Nutting” is also about a school boy who is walking through a forest during the daytime. It does not state whether it is morning or afternoon, but I get the feeling it is morning. “One Evening” contains several descriptions of the place, for example “The moon was up, the Lake was shining clear among the hoary mountains”: and “When from behind that craggy Steep, till then the bound of the horizon, a huge Cliff, as if with voluntary power instinct, uprear’d its head. In “Nutting”, the description of the place is much warmer and friendly – “I came to one dear nook unvisited, where not a broken bough drooped with its withered leaves, ungracious sign of devastation: but the hazels rose tall and erect with tempting clusters hung.” The two places described create two different moods and pictures in my imagination. “One Evening” is dark and spooky and cold, “Nutting” is the complete opposite, even though there is water there.

Join now!

        

In “One evening” Wordsworth is describing how he took a small boat which was tied to a willow tree and started to row it across the lake. He felt excited and rowed the boat as quickly as he could. He was also a little afraid he might be caught. In “Nutting” I get the feeling of a typical summer day, sunshine warm on your back and a “feel good” factor. The words used are calm and soft such as “Banquet” and “happiness”. Wordsworth’s feelings change in “One Evening” from relative calm when stealing the boat, to absolute fear when ...

This is a preview of the whole essay