EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF A MOTHERLESS CHILD: A CASE STUDY OF WILLIAM WORDSWORTH WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE PRELUDE (BOOKS: 1 & 2)

Abstract

The Prelude is a poetic autobiography through which Wordsworth desired to share something personal and intricate about himself. Wordsworth’s poem, while growing and subsiding, developing and reflecting, reveals and decides about himself. The undertaken study examined The Prelude with the prospective of the autobiography of an orphan. The relevant evidence is collected and analyzed through the lines of Prelude Books 1 and 2. The findings depict that the poet lost his mother when he was eight, and father’s death, when the poet was thirteen, are scarcely mentioned at all during the course when the poet speaks of his mental growth. The findings also reveal that to some extent, the meaning and story of the poem lies in the manner of its telling. However, it is concluded that the disclosure about the life and its experiences is irregularly disseminated in the poem’s structure. This leads to symptomatic reading of the poem.