Question Paper - Paper 2 Modern Texts and Poetry - Section B - Ozy - The Prelude - June 2018
Question Paper - Paper 2 Modern Texts and Poetry - Section B - Ozy - The Prelude - June 2018
Question Paper - Paper 2 Modern Texts and Poetry - Section B - Ozy - The Prelude - June 2018
Both poets present the power of nature and portray nature as sublime.
However, Shelly portrays nature’s power to erode its eponymous villain’s
legacy, whereas Wordsworth portrays nature’s power to strike fear into
the heart of man. Both Shelley and Wordsworth being romantic poets,
the landscapes in their poems are imbued with meaning, as romantic
poets believed that the natural world was capable of teaching us great
truths about our own nature and life itself.
The mountain has cast a powerful spell on the narrator which troubles
his mind.
In summary, both poets portray nature as sublime, alive and far more
powerful than man. Reading Shelley’s Ozymandias as a critique of the
vanity of autocrats, the message is that nature has the power to humble.
Similarly, the narrator in The Prelude is humbled by the vastness of the
mountain which ‘towered’ over him. In both poems there is the idea that
the natural world has the power to make us feel small and insignificant.
However, in The Prelude there is also the suggestion that nature has the
power to tell us great truths and see beyond the ordinary boundaries of
perception.