Personification & Imagery
English Lit: AQA GCSE Poetry - Power & Conflict, topic 7.1.2
Personification of Nature - Gentle
Wordsworth explores the power of nature in The Prelude. Here is how Wordsworth personifies (gives human characteristics to) nature as kind and gentle:
“one summer evening (led by her)”
- Although nature is powerful, indicated by the verb “led”, it is also benevolent and gentle.
“I unloosed her chain, and stepping in / Pushed from the shore”
- This reinforces the idea that nature is kind and gentle.
- The enjambment (sentence flowing over a line) could reflect the sense of freedom felt by the poet as he takes off across the lake in the boat.
Personification of Nature - Powerful
Wordsworth explores the power of nature, presenting it as untameable and awe-inspiring.
Menacing and frightening
- “The horizon's bound, a huge peak, black and huge, / As if with voluntary power instinct, / Upreared its head.”
- This is different from earlier on in the poem, where nature was characterised as benevolent (all loving).
- Nature is now personified and characterised as something menacing and frightening.
- “Black” is associated with ideas of power and death.
Mountain
- "For so it seemed, with purpose of its own / And measured motion like a living thing, / Strode after me."
- The personification here suggests the mountain is powerful.
- The alliteration of “measured motion” highlights the mountain’s control.
Imagery in The Prelude
There are contrasting images of beauty and darkness to show the two sides of nature.
Beauty of nature
- The poet creates positive images of beauty at the start of the poem. This presents nature as awe-inspiring and magical:
- “Small circles glittering idly in the moon, / Until they melted all into one track / Of sparkling light”.
Haunting effect of nature
- “There hung a darkness”.
- This dark imagery highlights the haunting effect of the experience on the speaker.
- The verb “hung” indicates that the narrator was unable to get rid of these disturbing thoughts and feelings.
Test yourself on Personification & Imagery
Which word in the quote below suggests nature is powerful?
“One summer evening (led by her)”What technique is being used in the quote below highlighting how gentle nature is?
“I unloosed her chain, and stepping in / Pushed from the shore”What word in this quote personifying nature has connotations of power and death?
“The horizon's bound, a huge peak, black and huge, / As if with voluntary power instinct, / Upreared its head”Which of these is NOT a technique used in this quote to highlight the mountain's control?
"For so it seemed, with purpose of its own / And measured motion like a living thing, / Strode after me"Which of these are quotes personifying nature as powerful and menacing?