Extract from The Prelude- GUIDE

This poem is in first person narrative. It starts with the story of a boy, stealing a boat ("It was an act of stealth", "Straight, I unloosened her chain") The boat is personified. The boy starts to row along the lake, marvellung at the beauty of nature. This can be shown in "Like a swan" and " small circles glittering idly along the moon until  they all melted into one track of sparkling light". The boy is arrogant ("proud of his skill"), which could be to convey the arrogance of mankind, thinking that they are perhaps better than nature. The boy gets frightened becasus he sees "a huge peak, black and huge". The mountain is personified to make it seem like a beast("Upreared its head...strode after me ") In…