The Prelude Manuscripts

This week we will be studying Wordsworth’s autobiographical poem, The Prelude, which many people consider his masterpiece.

The poem is particularly admired by readers for its depiction of Wordsworth’s childhood growing up in the Lake District. Watch this video to gain an introduction to the history of Wordsworth’s writing of the poem, which began in 1798 and continued for much of the rest of his life.

As you watch the video, you may like to take notes because in the next step we have set a quiz on the key issues it covers. In the rest of the week, we will examine how Wordsworth began writing The Prelude and explore some of its key passages.

We will focus on Wordsworth’s concept of ‘spots of time’ and investigate how he presents his childhood adventures. In the week’s videos, we will visit some of the key locations in The Prelude, including Hawkshead, where Wordsworth went to school, and Ullswater, the scene of one of his most interesting boyhood adventures.

Hopefully you will have a better understanding of the new tagging feature in this course now. In this week try to re-use tags which relate to something interesting or emergent, to help others focus on relevant themes – #sociallearning #commentdiscovery #cooperativelearning