ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Wordsworth writes: ‘Fair seed-time had my soul, and I grew up / Fostered alike by beauty and by fear’ (I. 305-06). These fostering agencies of ‘beauty’ and ‘fear’ are in fact recognizably parental ‘presences of Nature’ (I. 490).

Detailed explanation-2: -The main theme of The Prelude by Wordsworth is that society is disappointing, but nature presents the solutions to the problems caused by society.

Detailed explanation-3: -Beloved Derwent, fairest of all streams! Was it for this that I a four years’ child, a naked Boy, among thy silent pools, made one long bathing of a summer’s day?

Detailed explanation-4: -Wordsworth observes a rainbow in the sky and is filled with joy at the sight of a rainbow: a joy that was there when Wordsworth was very young, is still there now he has attained adulthood, and – he trusts – will be with him until the end of his days.

Detailed explanation-5: -In ‘Extract from, The Prelude’, there is a volta, signifying that the speaker’s view of nature changes from admiration to fear. At the start of the poem, nature is personified as ‘she led’ him to the boat. Personifying nature in this way makes nature sound enticing and almost seductive.