Boat Stealing (an extract from the Prelude) by William Wordsworth: GCSE

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Watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XV_q45Otdic 9 minutes 42 seconds

Boat Stealing

by William Wordsworth

I went alone into a Shepherd's boat,A skiff, that to a willow tree was tiedWithin a rocky cave, its usual home.The moon was up, the lake was shining clearAmong the hoary mountains; from the shoreI pushed and struck the oars, and struck againIn cadence, and my little boat moved onJust like a man who walks with stately stepThough bent on speed. It was an act of stealthAnd troubled pleasure. Not without the voiceOf mountain-echoes did my boat move on,Leaving behind her still, on either side,Small circles glittering idly in the moon,Until they melted all into one trackOf sparkling light.  A rocky steep uproseAbove the cavern of the willow-tree,And now, as suited one who proudly rowedWith his best skill, I fixed a steady viewUpon the top of that same craggy ridge,The bound of the horizon - for aboveWas nothing but the stars and the grey sky.She was an elfin pinnace; twenty timesI dipped my oars into the silent lake,And, as I rose upon the stroke, my boatWent heaving through the water like a swan;When, from behind that craggy steep, till thenThe horizon's bound, a huge peak, black and huge,As if with voluntary power instinct,Upreared its head. I struck and struck again,And growing still in stature the grim shapeTowered up between me and the stars, and still,For so it seemed, with purpose of its ownAnd measured motion like a living thing,Strode after me. With trembling oars I turned,And through the silent water stole my wayBack to the covert of the willow tree;There in her mooring-place I left my bark, -And through the meadows homeward went, in graveAnd serious mood; but after I had seenThat spectacle, for many days, my brainWorked with a dim and undetermined senseOf unknown modes of being; o'er my thoughtsThere hung a darkness, call it solitudeOr blank desertion. No familiar shapesRemained, no pleasant images of trees,Of sea or sky, no colours of green fields;But huge and mighty forms, that do not liveLike living men, moved slowly through the mindBy day, and were a trouble to my dreams.
Hip-hop star Akala visits the Lake District to examine the Boat Stealing episode from Wordsworth’s poem ‘The Prelude’ with poet Helen Mort. 6 minutes long https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGn1Ilx_3o4

Boat Stealing

William Wordsworth

Context:

William Wordsworth wrote the Prelude (of which this is a small section) in 1799. He was a key member of the Romantic movement, a group of writers, painters and musicians who aimed to explore the emotions, often by focusing on the wild and beautiful characteristics of nature and those who live among it in simple ways, such as shepherds. Wordsworth used the phrase ‘spots of time’ to describe the moments when subconscious thoughts surface through memories which is what is happening as the narrator’s fears about the world surface in this memory of a night-time adventure.

Meaning:

The narrator feels excited and adventurous when he steals a shepherd’s boat to row on a lake at night, enjoying the sublime beauty of nature in the play of moonlight on the water. However, his sense of exhilaration turns to terror in line 26 when he is unnerved by a huge cliff which seems to chase him and cut him off from the beauty that he had enjoyed before. He is changed, troubled and anxious as a result of his experience.

Structure and form:

There are three sections to the poem:

1.     Lines 1-25             The excitement of a night-time adventure – rebellious and free

2.     Lines 26-38a        The terror of an incident in which a huge cliff seems to chase him

3.     Lines 38b-48       The confusion of understanding that life is complicated and confusing

Moods and themes in the poem:

1.     Light to dark – Although at night, the moon, stars and ‘grey sky’ make it light, whereas back in the day ‘in my thoughts/ There was darkness’ and ‘were the trouble of my dreams’

2.     Innocence to experience – Taking simple, pleasure and fun in ‘my little boat’ and ‘small circles glittering idly in the moon’ turns to deeper understanding which he has to escape ‘with trembling hands’, ‘with grave and serious thoughts’

3.     Confidence to anxiety – ‘struck and struck again’ repeated, first to show the excitement of the narrator and second to show his panic.

4.     Human dominance to natural dominance – the narrator takes command to begin with, stealing the boat, rowing across the lake. Then the ‘huge cliff’ takes control, cutting him off from ‘the stars’

5.     Simplicity to Complexity – simple concrete nouns to start with: boat, moon, lake – then complex ideas in abstract nouns/ noun phrases to end with: modes of being, solitude, desertion

Organisation of the poem:

The poem is presented as 48 lines of blank verse in iambic pentameter, a naturalistic form (heartbeat!) reflecting the theme of nature.

Language:

Section 1: Lines 1-25       The excitement of a night-time adventure

·       Active verbs in first person to describe the confident actions of the narrator: ‘I went’, ‘I pushed and struck’, ‘I fixed’, ‘I dipped’, ‘I rose’ - tell the reader that the narrator is in control of his adventure.

·       The descriptions of light: ‘the moon was up’, ‘shining clear’, ‘glittering idly’, ‘sparkling light’, ‘the stars and the grey sky’ – give the reader a sense of beauty and safety.

·       Unthreatening imagery: ‘like a man who walks with stately step’, ‘an elfin pinnace’, ‘through the water like a swan’ – suggests to the reader that there is nothing to worry about.

·       An oxymoron, ‘troubled pleasure’, gives the reader a foreshadowing of the anxiety that will be felt by the narrator at the end of the poem.

Section 2: Lines 26-38a The terror of an incident in which a huge cliff seems to chase him

·       Active verbs in third person to describe the terrifying actions of the huge cliff: ‘upreared its head’, ‘rose up between me and the stars’, ‘strode after me’ – tell the reader that nature is in control of the fate of the narrator

·       Active verbs in first person describe the fearful actions of the narrator: ‘I struck and struck again’, ‘I turned’, ‘stole my way’, ‘I left’ – show the reader that the narrator has lost his initial confidence

·       Personification of the mountain: has a ‘voluntary power’, moves with ‘measured motion’ and is ‘like a living thing’ – shows the reader how frightening the cliff is to the narrator

Section 3: Lines 38b-48 The confusion of a new understanding about the world

·       Sentence length and form: The whole poem is full of long sentences but the final sentence of the poem is chopped up with commas and dashes – shows the reader how anxious and confused the thoughts of the narrator are as he flits from one idea to another

·       Imagery of darkness despite the daytime: ‘for many days…a dim and undetermined sense’, ‘in my thoughts there was darkness’, ‘huge and mighty forms…moved slowly…through my mind by day’ – shows the reader how the incident has led to an internal darkness in the narrator

Revision questions
1. Why is this a good example of a Romantic poem?2. How does Wordworth's language and structure communicate the fear felt by the narrator?3. 'This poem is ridiculous because who gets scared by a cliff?' - How far do you agree with this statement?