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The Prelude

Growth of a Poet's Mind: An Autobiographical Poem

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About this listen

Wordsworth's The Prelude is the consummation of his achievement as the great founder of English romanticism. An autobiography in verse, it tells of his childhood in the Lake District, his student days in Cambridge, his passion for the French Revolution and his later disenchantment with it. It also tells of his personal journey to a belief in Nature as the great moral and spiritual force which shapes human life, but on which human society all too often turns its back. Sub-titled "Growth of a Poet's Mind", The Prelude is both a key document in the history of English literature and an inspiring work of imagination. It is as fresh and challenging today as when it was written two centuries ago.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.

Download the accompanying reference guide.Public Domain (P)2013 Naxos AudioBooks Collections & Anthologies European Poetry World Literature French Revolution Biography
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This is the first time I have heard this poem and I am quite pleased with it.

Enjoyable

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The elocution was very good. I really enjoy listening it a lot. Great delivery and worth every cent.

Great!

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The unfolding of Wordsworth’s formative years. The swell of his personal story rolls on, wave after captivating wave. A later Age might have called this undertaking indulgent, but Wordsworth persuades us that every moment is significant: his Lakeland childhood; Cambridge (his attitude and experiences would be recognised by students today); London, with fascinating cameos of street life; France during the Revolution and the spirit of democracy; pre-Christian country customs; Salisbury Plain; and the Quantocks... . Of course the poet’s great insights into life, Art and the Spirit (at times a little opaque, but roll on!). And the divinity of Nature which must strike an urgent chord in us today. Here we have the poetic conceits of the Romantic era completely fresh and refreshing, from their source. Nicholas Farrell delivers a resonant and faultless reading. The Prelude is iconic and to be revisited - often.

Spellbinding!

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The Prelude is a great poem, of course, but the reader did it no justice: a mechanical voice hurrying lifelessly through the lines, as if they were prose paragraphs, with no sense of the iambic pentameter and music. Why can't Naxos demand that readers be able to read poetry as poetry? What a pity.

Poor performamce

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