The Prelude, 1805 Book II

In lines 341-371, the perspective of Wordsworth's speaker chronicles his own experience with some being that he encountered in his youth. He speaks in the first person, but he cannot attest to an actual physical experience. He writes, “I forgot/That I had bodily eyes, and what I saw/Appear’d like something in myself, a dream,/A prospect in my mind” (368-371). Whatever happened to the speaker it took place outside of the realm of his physical being and consciousness. This experience was so surreal that he struggled to articulate it, noting that, to some, this page is blank. In writing that, the speaker means that readers who have not shared this experience cannot possibly understand what Wordsworth is describing. Since the experience was metaphysical, it is impossible to express it in physical, comprehensive terms.
The speaker’s imagery is abstract, emotional, and metaphysical. He experiences grandeur, tumult, tranquility, delight, strength, happiness, passion, solitude, and holy calm. These are all subjective experiences; that which delights one man may bore another. So the speaker expresses a series of feelings, almost a stream of consciousness of the soul, which really cannot be translated for any other human being. The only way to understand the speaker’s perspective is to share his experience. So the speaker refers to his “Friend,” who, although they haven’t spoken in years, was affected in the same way at this time, and can empathize perfectly with his experience (352-358).
The inspiration for the speaker’s discussion is some encounter with the sublime. The speaker struggles to describe his interaction with the “universal power” (343). This power exists outside of himself – “to me came strengthen’d with a superadded soul, a virtue not its own” (347), and within himself – “a prospect in my mind” (371). And it would seem that the power is made complete in the speaker. “To me came strengthen’d a superadded soul,/A virtue not its own” would seem to indicate that the power reaches its fulfillment once it is made manifest in a man’s experience. All of the grandeur, tumult, tranquility, fitness, delight, and the essences of this being cannot exist outside of some physical manifestation. So while the speaker cannot possibly express his experience in literal terms, the “universal power” is equally constricted because it requires a man’s life to fully express itself. This concept of a power so lofty that man cannot comprehend it is, by definition, the sublime. The speaker’s experience is both outside himself, and within himself to give him a glimpse of something greater than himself. It’s pretty trippy.