The Two-Part Prelude of 1799: Part Two

“The Two Part Prelude of 1799: Second Part,” by William Wordsworth is a free verse poem about a man’s love and respect for nature. He develops the poem into two parts—past and present. Wordsworth compares his sight of nature from when he was younger to his present being. The poem’s iambic pentameter beat gives the poem structure and stability, but it unravels on line 34. Wordsworth includes three themes: man vs. nature, reason vs. passion, and growth and maturation.
The theme man vs. nature is strongly presented throughout the poem as Wordsworth compares his experience with nature from the past to the present. He begins by reinforcing his knowledge of when nature began and how man should not see nature as just trees and grass, but as something that began as nothing, but grew and matured just as people do. This view was enhanced during the poem as Wordsworth described his interactions with nature, working hard to produce it and mature it in the past. He explains that he can now embrace nature and looks at it differently through his experiences. He takes his knowledge of his experiences and what he has learned and presents his passion through poetry. This theme also addresses another—epistemology. Reading the poem Wordsworth can expect his readers to ask themselves questions and realize “why do we take simple things, such as nature, for granted”? We do this because we do not have experience with nature, therefore we see as just “trees and woods”.
Reason vs. Passion is was a not heavily praised, but it seemed highly vital when it was exhibited. For example, lines 19-21 exhilarates reason vs. passion the best.
“Ah, is there one who ever has been young
And needs a monitory voice to tame
The pride of virtue and of intellect?”
Wordsworth is explaining how when you are young you things for a reason, whether you know how to do it or not, or want to. But, as you mature, doing things for a reason becomes more and more vague, and you begin to do a lot of things because you are passionate about them. Also, through experience those reasons may turn into a passion, just as Wordsworth’s character experienced; he labored and went to be “with weary joints (achy bones) and with a beating mind (a headache)”.
I feel like the entire poem is based on growth and maturation. From references to night and day, birth, and changing seasons, they all are examples of growth and maturation that Wordsworth presents in this section of the poem. For further emphasis, the entire group of poems in Part Two represents growth and maturation. For example, in the first reading most of the students were unclear of the purpose of the poems, and felt like they were pointless and boring. But now that we have a basis of what Wordsworth is attempting to exhibit, I take the second part of poems and pay a lot of attention to them, comparing to them to the first half, and really understanding what Wordsworth was implying. For that reason, it is easier to dissect Part Two.