Audio log: Wordsworth peak

A poem by William Wordsworth.

## Location

As you take the boat to the Tree House Dock, look for a small rock jutting out nearby. You'll only be able to spot the tape from one side, so be quick or make sure the boat isn't going fast in order to catch it.

## Transcript

Lustily
I dipped my oars into the silent lake,
And, as I rose upon the stroke, my boat
Went heaving through the water like a swan;

When, from behind that craggy steep, till then
The horizon's bound, a huge peak, black and huge,
As if with voluntary power instinct,
Upreared its head. I struck and struck again,

And growing still in stature, the grim shape
Towered up between me and the stars. . . .

But after I had seen
That spectacle, for many days my brain
Worked with a dim and undetermined sense
Of unknown modes of being; o'er my thoughts

There hung a darkness, call it solitude,
Or blank desertion.

William Wordsworth, 1888

## Literal interpretation

We can most easily reach this audio log when we're in the boat and moving from the mangrove forest to the marsh. While we're here, we see the mountain rising up over us. A clear parallel to the poem.

## Literary context

This is part of a larger poem by William Wordsworth called "Prelude":

```
One summer evening (led by her) I found
A little boat tied to a willow tree
Within a rocky cove, its usual home.
Straight I unloosed her chain, and stepping in
Pushed from the shore. It was an act of stealth
And troubled pleasure, nor without the voice
Of mountain-echoes did my boat move on;
Leaving behind her still, on either side,
Small circles glittering idly in the moon,
Until they melted all into one track
Of sparkling light. But now, like one who rows,
Proud of his skill, to reach a chosen point
With an unswerving line, I fixed my view
Upon the summit of a craggy ridge,
The horizon’s utmost boundary; far above
Was nothing but the stars and the grey sky.
She was an elfin pinnace; lustily
I dipped my oars into the silent lake,
And, as I rose upon the stroke, my boat
Went heaving through the water like a swan;
When, from behind that craggy steep till then
The horizon’s bound, a huge peak, black and huge,
As if with voluntary power instinct,
Upreared its head. I struck and struck again,
And growing still in stature the grim shape
Towered up between me and the stars, and still,
For so it seemed, with purpose of its own
And measured motion like a living thing,
Strode after me. With trembling oars I turned,
And through the silent water stole my way
Back to the covert of the willow tree;
There in her mooring-place I left my bark, –
And through the meadows homeward went, in grave
And serious mood; but after I had seen
That spectacle, for many days, my brain
Worked with a dim and undetermined sense
Of unknown modes of being; o’er my thoughts
There hung a darkness, call it solitude
Or blank desertion. No familiar shapes
Remained, no pleasant images of trees,
Of sea or sky, no colours of green fields;
But huge and mighty forms, that do not live
Like living men, moved slowly through the mind
By day, and were a trouble to my dreams.

```

The poem tells a story of a man who steals a boat, explores, sees a giant mountain, gets scared and returns home, terrified of what he saw.

The poem was meant to be a prelude to another poem, but the second part was never finished. Wordsworth wrote this poem because he was lamenting the fact that he never got to write his magnum opus and here he describes his feelings thinking about that. Ironically, this poem ended up being just that, the work that Wordsworth is mostly remembered by.
He rewrote the piece several times, meaning there are multiple versions of the poem out there.

There is a part between the parts that are quoted in the Witness of the writer backing down from the terrifying mountain that is left out.

## Relation to the six themes of the Witness

This poem relates to Theme 4: Fatalism

The message here is that the writer was going for his goals and then realized the challenge was too great for him. He got scared and backed down. This fits very well with theme 4, that is about the dangers of the search for knowledge.

Interestingly, the consequences here are very mild. The writer decides to give up the quest rather than letting himself be consumed, which is different from most examples we see in this category.