Extract from The Prelude - Page 2 Summary
The second page continues the Extract from The Prelude, focusing on the aftermath of the speaker's encounter with the mountain and its lasting impact on his psyche.
Frightened by the looming mountain, the speaker turns back "with trembling oars" and stealthily makes his way back to the willow tree where he found the boat. He leaves the boat in its mooring place and walks home through the meadows "in grave and serious mood."
The experience has a profound and lasting effect on the speaker. For many days afterward, his brain works with "a dim and undetermined sense of unknown modes of being." A darkness hangs over his thoughts, which he likens to solitude or "blank desertion."
The familiar shapes and pleasant images of nature that he once knew - trees, sea, sky, green fields - no longer remain in his mind. Instead, he is haunted by "huge and mighty forms" that move slowly through his mind by day and trouble his dreams at night.
Quote: "No familiar shapes / Remained, no pleasant images of trees, / Of sea or sky, no colours of green fields"
Highlight: This passage illustrates the transformative power of the encounter with nature, which has fundamentally altered the speaker's perception of the world.
Example: The "huge and mighty forms" that now occupy the speaker's mind represent the overwhelming power and mystery of nature that he has encountered.
Vocabulary: Covert - A shelter or hiding place
The poem concludes with a powerful image of these strange forms moving through the speaker's mind, emphasizing the lasting impact of his encounter with nature's sublime power.