- Wisdom and SpiritphraseChapter 1 →
An invocation addressing Nature as a living, intelligent force — not a person but a divine presence that guides and shapes the poet's inner life.
“Wisdom and Spirit of Nature! Thou / Soul that art the eternity of thought”
- eternity of thoughtphraseChapter 1 →
The idea that the soul of Nature exists beyond time, giving thoughts and mental images a permanent, endless quality rather than a fleeting one.
“Soul that art the eternity of thought, / That giv'st to forms and images a breath”
- giv'stverbChapter 1 →
An archaic second-person singular form of 'give,' used when addressing a single being directly — equivalent to modern 'you give.'
“That giv'st to forms and images a breath / And everlasting motion.”
- everlasting motionphraseChapter 1 →
A ceaseless, never-ending movement or energy that Nature breathes into the shapes and pictures held in the mind.
“That giv'st to forms and images a breath / And everlasting motion.”
- instinctadjectiveChapter 1 →
Charged or filled with something from within — here meaning the cliff appeared to be animated or driven by its own inner force, not by any outside cause.
“As if with voluntary power instinct, / Upreared its head.”
- voluntaryadjectiveChapter 1 →
Acting by its own free will and intention, as a conscious being would — used here to make the cliff seem as though it chose to rise up deliberately.
“a huge peak, black and huge, / As if with voluntary power instinct, / Upreared its head.”
- uprearedverbChapter 1 →
Rose up suddenly and imposingly — the cliff lifted itself to a great height in a way that felt threatening and deliberate to the watching speaker.
“As if with voluntary power instinct, / Upreared its head.”
- mighty formsphraseChapter 1 →
Vast, powerful shapes or presences — not human beings but overwhelming natural images that lodged themselves in the poet's memory and imagination.
“Huge and mighty forms, that do not live / Like living men, moved slowly through the mind”
- troublenounChapter 1 →
A source of unease or disturbance — the forms did not simply appear in dreams but actively unsettled and disturbed the poet's sleep.
“Huge and mighty forms, that do not live / Like living men, moved slowly through the mind / By day, and were a trouble to my dreams.”
Extract from The PreludeNon-fiction by William Wordsworth