The Prelude Book 1 pg 107-131

In the 1805 version of the first book of The Prelude, Jonathan Wordsworth speaks a lot about God’s constant presence within nature, the order and harmony in nature, and he shares many of his rationalistic thoughts which he plans on writing down in The Recluse, his next book. One passage which I found interesting speaks of his new philosophical findings and how he intends to share them in his future book. This passage, lines 107-131, carries an emotional arc which starts with his excitement and happiness over discovering inspiration, moves to his indecisiveness in composing and presenting superlative philosophical beliefs, and ends with an his discouragement in writing The Recluse. Through diction, metaphors, and imagery, Wordsworth presents the emotional arc of his thoughts about writing The Recluse.

In the first part of the stanza, Wordsworth talks about his exciting discovery of philosophical inspirations all around him. He uses words such as “common” and describes “the endless store of things” as “rare, or at least so seeming…” The endless store is a metaphor Wordsworth uses for an atomistic view of ideas. The store places new products on its shelves as the mind places new impressed ideas in the brain from the outer world. In his description of them as common or as seeming rare, Wordsworth emphasizes that nature’s inspiration has always been around though he could not see it before his maturation. In writing the prelude, he is expressing his maturation as an artist and is showing his excitement and passion which springs from the inspirational world around him.

Though he is ecstatic and passionate about his ideas, he feels he needs an organized plan for sharing the best philosophical ideas ever presented. Wordsworth again uses the store metaphor to allude to his indecisiveness in approaching his writing of The Recluse. He notes he wants to “either lay up new stores, or rescue from decay the old by timely interference.” In other words, he is unsure whether he should present new philosophical ideas which have never been presented before or if he should base his book off older, yet still great, ideas which people have forgotten about. Though he is unsure of the approach, he hopes to present ideas better than other philosophers or poets of his time. Wordsworth alludes to his disapproval of current philosophical beliefs when he states, “I have hopes still higher, that with a frame of outward life I might endue, might fix in a visible home, some portion of those phantoms of conceit that had been floating loose about so long, and to such beings temperately deal forth the many feelings that oppressed my heart.” In this line, the “phantoms of conceit” which have “been floating about so long” refer to the current philosophical beliefs of others which have not been disproved or challenged. Wordsworth uses the imagery of phantoms to emphasize the negative connotations he has with the ideas “floating” around at the time. In going through with his plan to write The Recluse, he feels he can present better ideas.

Though he desires to write The Recluse, Wordsworth notes his recent discouragement; specifically, he uses imagery to present his frustration. He describes how he sees flashes of light as though the sun is rising, yet the sun never rises and merely “mock[s]” him. Wordsworth is being mocked by nature since he “remembers the sweet promise of the past…” In other words, based on the impressions in his mind, he has been taught or “promised” that the sun will rise when he sees “flashes” “from the east.” However, in recent cases, his memories and beliefs have failed him and nature seems to be messing with his head. This frustrating situation alludes to his frustration and uncertainty in writing The Recluse. Though nature is supposed to be his inspiration, nature now seems to be tricking him and confusing him. His ideas are being lost, and he faces obstacles or “impediments from day to day renewed” when trying to write the book.