Book First

William Wordsworth’s “Prelude” of 1805 was his second critique on trying to create the greatest English work ever written. He felt that to explain his philosophies in the greatest poem he had to show the reader how he got to this point in his life. This first book tells stories of his childhood and uses a lot of imagery of nature. Although not meant to be humorous, I find the fact that the “Prelude” is like an epic poem about the story of his like to entertaining.
The most intriguing lines to me are 206-228 in which he speaks of the highs and lows of man. “Of meditation on the inhuman deeds” (line 206) Wordsworth realizes the brutal past of such things as colonization and wars. He distinctly mentions the conquering of the Indian Isles that was done by the English. Oddly enough even though he is English his next few lines consist of brave men who helped fight for their respective countries and none of them were English. The most mentioned of these men is William Wallace who fought to free his countrymen from English rule.
“Wallace fought for Scotland, left the name / Of Wallace to be found like a wild flower” (lines 213-214). Wordsworth brings in the nature imagery at this point to emphasize how Wallace’s popularity spread even through death. He continues this imagery by comparing rocks and river-banks, or nature’s “sanctuaries,” to freedom and liberty. Through this Wordsworth is able to articulate how far they had come to that point, since a couple hundred years ago it was the English who tortured Wallace and tried denying his countrymen that same freedom and liberty.
Wordsworth uses this small section to show how he agrees with and supports those who fight for freedom and liberty. He ultimately wants to make a utopian society and believes that freedom and liberty would be best for a utopian society.