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The Five Book Prelude
Edited now for the first time by Duncan Wu, it provides students and general readers alike with an approachable introduction to Wordsworth's greatest work.
Paperback
Published
July 14th 1997
by Wiley-Blackwell
(first published 1800)
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I finally finished The Prelude for the first time through, but I will be reading it again for class in the next few weeks. I'm hoping a second reading will be helpful and give me a greater appreciation for the poem. I really disliked reading this poem because of the blank verse and its long, complicated sentences until Book XI of the 1805 version. I read the last three Books this evening and they gave me a greater appreciation for Wordsworth's project than I initially had. The last three Books r...more
engaging enough to not be torturous, and, considering this poem's length, that's more of a compliment than it might initially seem to be. This is Wordsworth at his most personal and tortured, yet he also seems greatly, and charmingly, at peace with his (kinda silly) view of life and literature. The Prelude is definitely a document of both literary worth and historical value.
As a piece of literature, judged on its own, I found it far too inconsistent and structurally awkward to merit th...more
As a piece of literature, judged on its own, I found it far too inconsistent and structurally awkward to merit th...more
I probably like the idea behind The Prelude - the development of the mind and its worthiness of an epic - more than I actually enjoyed reading this text. I found the English of this text more difficult to read than that of Paradise Lost for some reason, despite its relative youth. As such, it took me a very long time to get through the poem in its entirety. I did enjoy the "spots of time", though, where Wordsworth makes connections between the experiential and the spiritual or universa...more
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A long poetic work that's pretty much the ultimate embodiment of Wordsworth's views on life, nature, and the necessary power of the imagination. The lifelong struggle for the restoration of such imagination. The keyword here has got to be "long", though -- as much as some segments were narratively stunning, I couldn't entirely bring myself to savour each and every bit, or even each and every book. It's a work that fluctuates, dipping into the recesses of the soul and emerging with conc...more
This comment is on the 1850 version of The Prelude, not others or Norton's criticism/apparatus. Perhaps a slog to some contemporary readers, but brilliant, beautiful and often sublime and deeply insightful. That’s not to say it's completely without contradiction or that it presents a coherent system of thought (or is consistently brilliant and beautiful). But it’s rich in food for thought, sometimes viewed from very unusual perspectives, and in an uncannily earthy yet simultaneously other-wor...more
The Prelude is Wordsworth’s longest compilation of poems that shows all of his Romantic ideals from romance and nature to poetry its self. Saying that poetry should be written in simple language rather then flowery, over dramatized language. However I did find it tough to read at times. His topics range from childhood, to the future, to love, and to death. His use of blank verse and imagery make it a great work to read under a tree by a lake. This work made me love poetry, Wordsworth, and Romant...more
When people saw me reading this everyone would ask "Prelude to WHAT?" after seeing the lengthy poem. This is a hundreds of page long poem about Wordsworth's formative years--he worked on this until his death revising it every few years.
Has anyone ever said that Wordsworth writing an epic length poem about his youth could be viewed as somewhat. . .maybe. . .egocentric? All these stories are laid out to the reader with the express intention to be a lesson to she who reads ...more
Has anyone ever said that Wordsworth writing an epic length poem about his youth could be viewed as somewhat. . .maybe. . .egocentric? All these stories are laid out to the reader with the express intention to be a lesson to she who reads ...more
I love this edition. The facing-page versions of both 1805 and 1850 are so handy and useful, making it so easy to see how one publication differed from the other. Like so many others I imagine, I'm in love with the 1805 version. Still, I was glad to have the 1850 immediately next to the 1805, in order to make that distinction for myself. I had read the 1805 this past summer and am now reading it again more closely. It's clear to me that this work was/is of major importance. If anything could ind...more
I read Book VII of this for a literature seminar about London. I'll be honest: I'm not into poetry. I love literature, and I love reading, but poetry is just one genre that I cannot seem to appreciate; it doesn't touch me. But to each their own, right? While reading it before said seminar, I was really bored and almost literally fell asleep at the library. I thought I would be just as bored in class, but I underestimated my wonderful professor who made the studying of this extract fun and worth ...more
Read for Dr. Turner's Epic class. Oh my goodness this was so stinkin' good. Wordsworth hasn't been a favorite of mine, but this gave me a new appreciation for him. Some really fascinating ideas buried in here about the mind, the redemption of taste and the imagination, education, experience, and more.
Drink a glass of port by the fire while you are reading this book and you will be all set. It's Wordsworth. Enough said. I owe my status as a Wordsworthian scholar to a professor of mine at Providence College- miss him!
It's been a wonderful experience reading the Preludes at the same time as The Divine Comedy without Milton sandwiched in between, but I guess I'll have to read Paradise Lost again, too.
One of the first texts we were forced to read at university, and instantly turned me away from Wordsworth. I have never really been a fan of the romantic poets, and throwing you into them at the very start of university didn't help my opinion. I don't exactly remember it very well, I just remember strongly disliking it, which was probably due to a combination of bad timing and freshers flu.
"Instruct them how the mind of man becomes / A thousand times more beautiful than the earth / On which it dwells [.../] and of fabric more divine" (Wordsworth 482)! And thus wrote the great poet.
O, Wordsworth, I just don't know yet what to say! Only, for now, that you make me feel so large, so infinite, so imbued with meaning, so free of human-made/human-enforced "puny boundaries," so capable of doing something powerful.
241 pages of poetry, experience an...more
O, Wordsworth, I just don't know yet what to say! Only, for now, that you make me feel so large, so infinite, so imbued with meaning, so free of human-made/human-enforced "puny boundaries," so capable of doing something powerful.
241 pages of poetry, experience an...more
Some of the most beautiful poetry - a very western poet preaching very eastern philosophy. No wonder he's considered one of the best.
A grandeur in the beatings of the heart.
Finally done with this one, and I can't say I'm unhappy. Did I like it? Not sure I can answer that one. I had to read it so fast that I can't say the density of Wordsworth's thought penetrated too deeply. He is still one of my favorite poets, and I've been looking to take this on for a long time, but I'm glad it's over. I will definitely be returning to a few of its chapters, especially the early ones.
There are major differences between the 1805 version and the 1850 version, especially pertaining to spirituality and Christianity. I like the 1805 version better actually, but the good thing about this book is that it has both and you can read them both separately or compare them side by side.
Very Difficult,very rewarding in that it is so expansive and detailed that it opened up great vistas that I'd never thought about before. I suppose the poem can be viewed as tedious or self-interested but that's why he became the poet laureate of England.
This book is, to my modern taste, sometimes diffuse and certainly over-long, but it is also, in my estimation, a masterpiece of thought, perception and composition. It has taken weeks to read it; having finished it, I want to read it again immediately.
It has its moments of greatness, but didn't make my blood flow quite like Shelley, Stevens, or Whitman.
I have a mixed reaction. There are amazing passages, but this work seems to epitomize the self-absorption of Romanticism. The Me Epic.
The 1799 version of the Prelude is probably the single greatest poem of Wordsworth's career. Amazing.
Long. Very, very long. Some beautiful passages, but - looooooooong.
awaiting arrival, my poetry for the semester.
Winter 2008: Form & Theory I (J. Johnson)
outstanding critical edition.
AN ALL-TIME FAVORITE
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Readers Also Enjoyed
William Wordsworth was a major English romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their 1798 joint publication, Lyrical Ballads.
Wordsworth's masterpiece is generally considered to be The Prelude, an autobiographical poem of his early years which the poet revised and expanded a number of times. The work was posthumously tit...more
More about William Wordsworth...
Wordsworth's masterpiece is generally considered to be The Prelude, an autobiographical poem of his early years which the poet revised and expanded a number of times. The work was posthumously tit...more
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“Bliss it was in that dawn to be alive
But to be young was very heaven.”
—
9 people liked it
But to be young was very heaven.”
“The earth was all before me. With a heart
Joyous, nor scared at its own liberty,
I look about; and should the chosen guide
Be nothing better than a wandering cloud,
I cannot miss my way.”
—
6 people liked it
More quotes…
Joyous, nor scared at its own liberty,
I look about; and should the chosen guide
Be nothing better than a wandering cloud,
I cannot miss my way.”
