Experience of Nature and Growth of the Poet's Mind in The Prelude

Fragmentation, transitoriness, uncertainty are features which affect modern life. In turn, Romanticism asserts the individual's integrity and a rightful place for man in the world through the praise of beauty. William Wordsworth is one of the most acclaimed poets of English Literature and The Prelude is his major poetic achievement. Through autobiographical form Wordsworth tells the main events of his life, from early childhood to mature adulthood, relating a body of human experiences to a symbolical and conceptual frame that accounts for the comprehension of the poet's spiritual development. The poem triggers reflection about the relationship between the influence of Nature upon the human spirit and man's own mental disposition to respond to the images of the outer world. This study focuses on how Wordsworth combines the representation of perceptive and imaginative experience of Nature with a set of tropes, symbols and concepts that pervade centuries of poetic and philosophical traditions in Western culture. This book is intended for scholars, teachers and students of English Literature as a critical ressource on Romanticism and an insightful interpretation of Wordsworth's poetry.