William Wordsworth (1770-1850) The Prelude. The Prelude (alternatively titled Growth of a Poet's Mind: An Autobiographical Poem) is an 1850 extended blank verse poem by William Wordsworth. The long epic poem is known as The Prelude, but Wordsworth had never decided on any title as such at the time of his death in 1850. The second version with 13 books was published in 1805 and the final revised version came out in 1850 with 14 books. The body of the poem employs flashbacks to describe the development of the poetic mind during youth. 2. The speaker recalls, Oh, many a time have I, a five years' child. This material is amalgamated with the poet's adult views of philosophy and art (those views held during the writing and endless revision of The Prelude, roughly from 1799 until 1850). Complete summary of William Wordsworth's The Prelude. Although Darbishire's edition had brought the early Prelude manuscripts to light, the concept of a "Two-Part Prelude " was yet to be defined by two key articles. The Prelude is what was intended to be the first section in Wordsworth's autobiography. Facts you may or may not already know about our man of the hour : • Written in 1798 to friend Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Prelude is often considered Wordsworth’s masterpiece. • The version of the The Prelude I’m using is from the 1799 publishing, which separated the poem into two parts. However, it was published only after his death in 1850. There is, however, one form of evidence which makes it unwise to assume that the two-part Prelude was in Wordsworth's mind a completed work. In a small mill-race severed from his stream, Made one long bathing of a summer's day; Basked in the sun, and plunged and basked again Alternate, all a summer's day. Summary. Wordsworth's first allusion to Paradise Lost in The Prelude in either manuscript or print appears in the joyous account of his childhood games. 1. Introduction. The poet referred to it as his "Poem to Coleridge," subtitled "Growth of a Poet's Mind." The first version containing two books was published in 1799. Wordsworth and Coleridge, his philosophical dancing master. Wordsworth’s autobiographical poem, The Prelude was begun in 1799 and was completed in 1805. All in all, it would have been a part of a much longer work to be entitled, The Recluse. The start of Book 1 finds Wordsworth speaking from a mature point of view. eNotes plot summaries cover all the significant action of The Prelude. 3. Wordsworth experiences relief in coming back to nature. Two Key Articles: "The Three Forms of The Prelude 1798-1805," J. R. MacGillivray (1964) and "The Two-Part Prelude of 1798-99", Jonathan Wordsworth and Stephen Gill (1973). 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