Prelude Part II

Wordsworth’s Prelude of 1799 Part II, is a stark contrast to the goals of Part I. Part I delves heavily into the past, specifically dealing with nature. The words talk about the different effects sights in nature have on a human and how they can affect mental and emotional states of mind. Part II on the other hand is strongly focused with growth and development of the human mind and emotions. The passage between lines 268-310 is a prime example of this emotional growth.

This passage starts off while the baby is still in the mother’s womb. In the womb the child and mother’s souls are automatically intertwined by the forces of nature. Later, the basic events that occur in a baby’s life shape what the baby will develop. Locking eyes with his mother stirs emotions which increase blood flow and thus stimulate the mind and cognitive development. Wordsworth also goes on to describe how the blood within the baby’s veins are “interfused the gravitation and the filial bond of Nature that connect him with the world.” Wordsworth uses strange words here within the same sentence. Why would he describe gravitation and nature by saying a filial bond? He is talking about the pull of love that an infant has to his mother. A newborn child is always favored, almost like gravity, towards his mother. The mother has natural soothing abilities that the baby will automatically take comfort in from the minute he is born.

In the past passage Wordsworth used a technique that is, again, a contrast from the first part of Prelude. In Part I, Wordsworth took a strong liking to the growth and maturation of himself as a poet. He believed that he did not know what his prior experiences meant at the time, but looking back on them he was able to determine their purpose. For instance, Wordsworth had experience with nature. He observed natural things when he was younger but did not appreciate the natural beauty and knowledge giving ability of the great outdoors until later in his life. In Part II, there is no way that Wordsworth could have remembered an image of locking eyes with his mother when he was an infant, or feeling her embrace. Wordsworth is using a philosophical approach to pondering why things happen. The study of why people know what they know is called epistemology. Wordsworth is aiming and invoking epistemology within the readers of his works as well.