Hi, everyone.

This is Mr. Chandrapala.

And I'm really looking forward to working with you today.

We're gonna be having a look at one of my favourite poems of English Romanticism.

We're looking at Wordsworth, "The Prelude." We're only looking at a short extract of it because Wordsworth's "The Prelude" is several books long and is really dense.

But this extract is such an interesting way of trying to understand the Romantic poet understanding of himself and his own creative process.

So, let's dive in.

So, today, our outcome is that we can be able to explain what we think about the poem and why we think it was written.

To do this, we need to be really confident with our keyword.

So as ever, let's just run through them really quickly.

We've got the noun, excerpt, which is a short extract taken from a larger text.

We're looking at the concept of nostalgia, which is a sense of longing for the past.

We're considering the idea of rapture, which is a feeling of intense pleasure or joy.

We'll be thinking about the feeling of euphoria, which is a feeling of intense excitement and happiness.

And finally, we'll be thinking about a piece of work which is semi-autobiographical, which is a text that is partly true to real life and also partly fictional.

So, without further ado, let's move in.

We are looking at reading the poem first.

Initially, let's just consider what we think of when we think about childhood.

What memories do you have when you think about you when you were younger? Pause the video.

Maybe jot down some ideas.

You may want to create a little mind map of what childhood in the middle of your page, and then craft some ideas.

Or you may want to talk to the person next to you and just share a couple of thoughts.

Take one minute now.

Pause the video and discuss these two questions.

And when you are ready, hit play.

Fantastic, everyone.

I really love the way that you were getting into those discussions.

When we're thinking about childhood, we're maybe thinking about this idea of innocence.

We're thinking about the idea of maybe pure joy.

This idea that actually we are only thinking about the future or really we're living so much in the present moment.

We're just really at one with the things going on around us.

Our memory is gonna be truly individual, but some of you will have memories of playing outside.

Some of you will have memories of playing with other children, maybe siblings, maybe friends from down the road, maybe going to school.

This idea of education is so important in Romanticism.

And though it's not gonna be something that we're talking about explicitly today, Wordsworth's talking about his childhood is him talking about something about his education, his spiritual education almost.

The education that sort of like keeps him going for the rest of his life.

The learnings he takes.

So, we're going to start off by reading the excerpt from "The Prelude." I'm gonna let you do this independently.

To do this, I would like you to use the glossary below to help you understand the poem.

So I'd like you to pause the video now.

And using your copies of the Eduqas Anthology or the printouts that you have of "The Prelude," I just would like you to read that independently to yourself.

When you've done that, hit play.

As I said right at the top, this is one of my favourite poems of English Romanticism.

And I appreciate, you maybe reading this for the first time independently, you're like, "What is Mr. Chandrapala on about? What is he really talking about?" Well, look, it's absolutely fine that you're questioning that.

Hopefully, by the end of today's lesson, you realise why this is one of my favourite poems, and I don't seem like totally out of this world for having that viewpoint.

My first question to you though, is just to think about, how do you think the speaker feels in this poem and why? Also, how did the poem make you feel and why? We have words like rapture within that poem, so we can maybe start to work out how he feels.

But how did that make you feel? Just pause the video.

Have that conversation.

Maybe go back to the text, see if you can work out how the speaker feels, maybe annotate some of those keywords.

And when you're ready, hit play.

Fantastic.

I'm really pleased with the way that you are all going back to your text and checking your ideas against there.

Really interesting to hear the kind of divergent views.

Some of you are talking about how made you feel quite melancholic.

Some of you're thinking about actually how it is quite joyful, that part.

You know, English Romanticism Wordsworth spoke is inherently complex.

It's absolutely fine for us to be taking away different ideas.

Hopefully, we'll be able to distil them a little bit over the course of this lesson.

We're gonna take a closer look at the poem.

So the first part of the extract we'll have a look at is just this little section.

I'm gonna read it out to you and then we'll maybe discuss some of the key areas.

"And in the frosty season, when the sun was set, and visible for many a mile, the cottage windows through the twilight blazed.

I heeded, not the summons.

Happy time it was indeed for all of us.

To me, it was a time of rapture, clear and loud." So my first question to you is, in which season is the poem set? Pause the video.

Just take a second to work that out.

Maybe underline when you think you found it and then hit play.

Yes, so we're looking at it as it's in the frosty season, so it is in the winter.

But then what kind of scene is being described here? Just take a second again.

Well, you don't have to pause, just.

We'll give you a moment of thinking time.

Can we work out what kind of scene is being described here? Okay.

Good.

Really glad to see that you're all checking back through your work, checking back through the poem to understand what kind of scene is being described.

As I said earlier, the poem is set in the frosty winter, and is a rural, domestic, tranquil setting.

This moment where he talks about the cottage windows, we know that it's meant to be quite domestic.

We don't really associate cottages with the city.

It's quite rural because of that.

And also with the twilight blazing or the sun setting gently, it's meant to be quite a calm, peaceful area.

We'll go again.

Again, just following on using your copies of the text.

"The village clock tolled six.

I wheeled about, proud and exalting, like an untired horse that cares not for his home.

All shod would steel, we hissed along the polished ice, in games confederate, imitative of the chase and woodland pleasures, the resounding horn, the pack loud bellowing, and the hunted hare." So two questions here.

How is the speaker feeling at this moment? What activity is the speaker taking part in? And who might the pack be? Three questions.

Okay, take a minute, pause the video now, and just begin to answer those three questions.

Interesting stuff.

Really glad to see so many of you going back to the text.

Let's just check our understanding here.

So the speaker feels euphoric.

They're proud, they're exalting, they're wheeling about like an untired horse.

You get that sense that there is such energy and motivation in the way that he's moving.

So we can definitely see that there is joy in Wordsworth narrator's movements.

"They hissed along the polished ice." So we can tell that they are ice skating.

"And this pack loud and bellowing." That describes Wordsworth and his friend.

So that's the poet or the narrator of the text and his friends here.

But why might Wordsworth want to describe the group as a pack? Pause the video again.

See if you can maybe discuss this in your pairs.

Why would he describe them as being a pack here? What kind of connotations do we think of that word? When you've got an idea, hit play.

Really lovely thoughts there, everyone.

So pleased that a lot of you are picking out of that idea well.

If we're thinking about a pack, it's maybe that sort of animalistic nature.

So that idea that Wordsworth and friends are kind of unbridled.

There's almost a savagery in the way that they're moving.

Such an interesting thought.

But then also if they're a pack, they're moving together, aren't they? They're working together.

There's that sense that joy is shared.

So again, really nice ideas.

So it shows their excitement, their youth, they're wild animals at this point, they're moving together.

Just a quick check for understanding here.

True or false.

The poem is about Wordsworth experience hunting with his friends as a young boy.

True or false? Choosing in three, two, and one.

We can see that it's false because.

Now we need to justify our answer.

I was about to give the answer away, but you are gonna tell me, is it because the poem is about Wordsworth experience cycling with his friends as a young boy? Or is it because the poem is about Wordsworth experience ice skating with his friends as a young boy? Take 30 seconds again, pause the video, and then hit play, and then we'll be able to tell.

Being sat here waiting because in this posture, because I know that this can be quite confusing, but if we remember back, that moment once they hissed along the ice together, should tell us that they're ice skating.

Well done, everyone, for getting that right.

Really impressed.

You're understanding a really complex poem.

So that is gonna put us in really good foundations for later on when we begin to analyse.

We're gonna have a look at this part of the poem now.

So, again, reading with me, just to make sure that we understand what's going on.

"So through the darkness and the cold we flew, and not a voice was idle.

With the din, meanwhile, the precipices rang aloud.

The leafless trees and every icy crag tinkled like iron, while the distant hills into the tumult sent an alien sound of melancholy.

Not unnoticed, while the stars, eastward, were sparkling clear, and in the west, the orange sky of evening died away." I think there's a little bit of a tone shift here, but I'm gonna ask you to try and think about that.

I'm not gonna give too much away.

Initially, I'm gonna ask you what contrast can we notice in this poem and how is Wordsworth describing nature? And what kind of tone are we left with at the end of this part of the poem? Pause the video now.

Take a second.

Try to unpack those three questions.

Again, you can discuss in your pairs.

You can jot down some ideas.

And I think tank session, that will be really helpful for you here.

And when you're ready, hit play.

As I said, this is one of my favourite poems. And I think Wordsworth's writing on his childhood is so interesting because he is trying to show his own prowess as a poet, his own sort of special relationship with nature.

But also, there is a sort of duality to the way that he views the natural world and the way that he understands his childhood and his understanding of nature.

So hopefully, we'll be able to dig into that a little bit here.

What contrast can we notice in the poem? Well, we have that contrast between the warmth of the group's excitement, you know, him running wild like an untired horse, and then the fun and the cold of the ice.

And then we've got the fact that he's describing nature as being immensely beautiful and playful, much like the skaters.

So the nature seems to be mimicking the skaters.

So we're left with this idea that it's a very peaceful and serene image of evening dying away at the end of the poem that just begins to create a nostalgic tone, particularly when we're talking about the idea of the alien sound of melancholy, not unnoticed.

We've got that sense that actually, something sad is happening here.

There's something almost being a lost.

But what is being lost? What might Wordsworth be nostalgic about here? Pause the video.

Talk to the person next to you.

Let's try and work it out.

What is Wordsworth so nostalgic about? When you're ready, hit play.

Some lovely ideas there, everyone.

Just a really interesting collection.

People talking about his innocence, people talking about the loss of childhood, the end of the day, the end of like playing with his friends.

All of these are interesting.

It could be that Wordsworth feels nostalgic about his childhood and wishes to feel that sense of euphoria again.

I am an old man now, and I definitely know that when I was younger, I felt things so intensely, and now I still feel happy, I still feel joy, but it doesn't maybe reach that same childhood level of immense joy that it felt like at the time.

So that could be what Wordsworth is beginning to get at that.

We're just gonna practise our understanding of the poem by just summarising what the poem is about in just one single sentences.

The sentence starter I want you to use is "The excerpt from Wordsworth's 'The Prelude' recounts or tells the story of.

." To do this, you can only use one sentence.

So you have to be really concise and think carefully about your choice of vocabulary.

I'm also gonna ask you to really challenge yourself to use the key words from today's lesson.

We know it's an excerpt and that's already included in the sentence.

But I need you to consider that idea of nostalgia, the rapture, the euphoria, the fact that it's semi-autobiographical.

You may want to just edit the sentence starter that start from way Wordsworth's semi-autobiographical, "The Prelude," and then go from there.

But I'm gonna give you a little bit of time.

Pause the video now.

Independently working through just summarising the poem for yourself in a single sentence.

When you're ready, hit play.

Some lovely ideas there, everyone.

I wish everyone could hear the wealth of ideas that we've got in this room right now.

But we're just gonna take a little bit of feedback.

So, how many of today's keywords did you use in your one-sentence summary? We've got excerpt, rapture, euphoria, nostalgia, autobiographical, semi-autobiographical even.

So, just making sure that we're adding those in when we can.

We know that Wordsworth's childhood narrator feels an incredible sense of rapture and euphoria, which eventually gives way to nostalgia with the ending of the day.

So, are there any opportunities where you can swap out one of your existing choices for one of those key pieces of vocabulary? Pause the video.

See if you can add any of them in.

When you're ready, hit play.

So, what we are now going to have a look at, is understanding childhood and memory within the poem.

So what we're now going to be doing, is we're going to be looking at understanding childhood and memory within the poem.

Initially, I just want you to have a discussion with the person next to you or maybe take some notes on your sheet.

Based on the poem we just read, what kind of childhood might Wordsworth have had? Pause the video and see if you can work that out.

When you're ready, hit play.

Some lovely ideas.

Loads of people saying the fact that it was a really calm, tranquil childhood.

The fact that actually, a lot of it would've been rural.

The fact that he's not a modern day poet.

He starts writing "The Prelude" in the 1790s, so he is an 18th century man, was a boy in the 18th century.

So, it would've been quite a rural, rustic sort of upbringing.

So all of these are fact.

It's worth saying that Wordsworth was born in 1717, and he grew up in the Lake District in the North of England.

What concepts do we know about the Lake District? Some of you may have visited it, some of you may have studied it in geography, some of you may even live around there.

If you don't know anything, can you guess what it might be based on its name and department? District as a sort of area, but why is it called the Lake District? Pause the video again.

See if you can take any of those clues and work it out, and then we'll proceed.

Some really lovely inferences.

People saying that actually, he would've spent a lot of his time outdoors, and that's it.

It was so clear in the way that he writes, isn't it? The fact that he's so focused on the natural world and his sort of relationship with that.

The Lake District is an area of outstanding, natural beauty.

It is filled with lakes, forest, and hilly landscapes.

Much of the Lake District is therefore protected by as "national park" land.

So that is definitely something for us to consider when we are thinking about Wordsworth's relationship with the natural world.

He would've been so influenced by it seeing its natural beauty.

Wordsworth lived a very happy childhood in the Lake District.

He spent a lot of his youth playing outdoors, making the most of the beautiful landscape that surrounded him.

Therefore, how would that have influenced how he felt about the natural world? Well, we know that he loved walking in the countryside at all hours of the day and night.

There are many accounts of him walking.

He walked so much that people suspected him of being a French spy.

He was notorious for spending time out, walking around the area.

And he was so incredibly influenced by it.

He even found great peace and inspiration from immersing himself in nature, either alone or with his family and friends.

Wordsworth was so influenced by the natural world that he wrote a sort of defence of it as part of a piece of work called the "Lyrical Ballads" with Coleridge, where he had basically spent a summer with Coleridge and his sister writing poetry in that particular house in the Lake District and really immersing themselves in the natural world.

So he was incredibly influenced by his childhood.

He's also regarded as one of the most influential Romantic poets.

And it's here that I'm just gonna ask you to stop and think about what you know about the Romantic poets.

I've talked a lot about them already in this lesson.

You may already know quite a lot about them.

So I'm just gonna give you just 30 seconds to pause the video and discuss with your partner.

Or maybe just jot down some key ideas, maybe a little on mind map again, just of what we already know about Romantic poets.

Once you've done that, hit play.

Fantastic, everyone.

So, in terms of what we can already know about the Romantic poets, we know that the Romantic movement marked a shift away from the intellectual reason, logical approaches to the thought of the Enlightenment period in the 18th century.

And they were far more emotional and imaginative in their way of thinking and reasoning.

Romantic poets also thought of nature as awe-inspiring, and worshipped the beauty of the natural world, as well as its sheer size and power, which is where we start to approach ideas of the sublime, which I would talk about but I'm not going to for this lesson.

So, the question here is, where can we really begin to see the freedom of emotion in this poem? Well, we'll get to that.

But first of all, I'm just going to quickly do a check for understanding.

The Romantic poets mostly wrote about the sheer power and beauty of love.

True or false? Choosing in five, four, three, two, and one.

Congratulations to all of us who said false.

You are correct, but why? So, the Romantic poets didn't write mostly about the sheer power and beauty of love.

Is that because A, they wrote mostly about the natural world and the interior world, or experience of feeling and emotion? Or is it B, because the Romantic poets mostly wrote about the importance of the institutional powers and the control that mankind could exercise over the natural world? Selecting your options again in five, four, three, just choosing between A or B, two, and one.

Let's just see, A or B? Good.

Most of us saying A.

So it's about that idea of the natural world and the interior experience of it, and that experience of emotion and feeling attached to it.

It's important to say that Wordsworth life was not one without hardship.

He is not someone who didn't experience his own struggles.

His mother died when he was just seven years old.

He struggled throughout his life with a degenerative eye condition, which meant that his sight was limited.

And he did feel incredibly ostracised by society because of his affiliation with France during the time of great political uncertainty.

Actually, went over to France during the French Revolution, partly because he was interested in the political period France was undergoing, but that meant that he felt that he was shunned by some members of the British community.

So how might this hardship have affected his relationship with nature? Would it have made him feel more positively about it or ultimately, more negatively? Again, I'm just gonna ask you to pause the video, discuss with the person next to you, what we think and why we think his relationship with nature may have changed.

When you're ready, hit play.

And fantastic.

So, really interesting ideas.

A lot of us saying that actually he would've felt increasingly positively about nature because actually, he would have felt it as a way of sort of returning to something that he knew, something that he trusted, something that made him feel safe.

That is a totally reasonable way of looking at it.

Quick check for understanding again.

Which of the following statements about Wordsworth are true? So there could be multiple here.

Is it A, Wordsworth grew up in London and lived there his whole life, B, Wordsworth had a degenerative eye condition that affected his sight, C, Wordsworth's father died when he was just seven years old, or D, Wordsworth had a great appreciation for the beauty and magnitude of nature.

Selecting your responses in five, four, three, two, and one.

(snaps) Well done, everyone.

So, we can see it is B and D.

His father doesn't die when he's seven years old.

His mother dies.

Wordsworth did not grow up in London.

He grew up in the Lake District in the North of England, so quite far away from London.

He didn't live in the Lake District for his entire life, but he did spend a really significant portion of his life there.

Wordsworth eventually published "The Prelude," and as I said, it is an immensely long poem.

It is not.

You know, some poems are a couple of hundred lines.

There are different versions of "The Prelude." There is a 12-book version, which is incredibly long, about, I think over 300 pages, which yes, I have read, and yes, I don't enjoy every part of it, but it is rather good in part.

"The Prelude" is semi-autobiographical, and the part that we have read is I think really interesting because it looks so much at its childhood.

However, "The Prelude" doesn't just focus on that.

It really tells the story of Wordsworth life as a journey based literally in the Lake District, but also metaphorically as it begins to seek his own purpose.

If we think about it, a prelude is something that comes before something else.

And naturally, what we are led to believe about Wordsworth writing is that he intended to write something much more fuller than just the prelude.

Something that was going to be a little bit more exploratory about politics and the natural world, which he just never quite got around to do it.

But why do we think the title a "Prelude" is still fitting for this semi-autobiographical piece of work? Bearing in mind that we focused on an abstract, which is from his childhood.

Pause the video, discuss that in your partners, and when you're ready, come back.

I think we've got some poets amongst some of us just because of the way some of you are able to identify really clearly that it's a prelude because it's the beginning of something, right? So it's this idea that it's something that comes before something else.

His childhood comes before what he views to be his main piece of work, that sort of political and natural world of reformation.

So that is a really interesting way of looking at it.

Childhood is the stage before adulthood.

The title therefore reflects the idea that Wordsworth is exploring his upbringing in childhood to better understand who he was as an adult.

He's trying to be reflective here.

He's trying to be almost self-evaluative about his life and how he got to the position that he is in.

He began to write "The Prelude" at 28, but continued to work on it throughout his life.

Eventually, it was published after his death in 1850.

But what does this suggest about memory or memories? So, if we're thinking about it, he starts writing when he's 28, which, if my math is right, means he starts writing it in 1798.

He works on it throughout his life, but it's only published after his death, 52 years after he begins writing it.

What does that suggest about the way that we accumulate memory, and the way that we maybe link memories together? Pause the video again, see if we can have that discussion, and when you're ready, hit play.

Fascinating ideas there.

So, Izzy, one of our Oak students said, "Well, I think it's demonstrative of the power of memory.

Memories are extremely powerful things that can make us feel a wide range of emotions.

The fact that Wordsworth dedicated his life to this poem illustrates how important his memories were to him.

He perhaps wants to document them so they would never be forgotten, which may explain the nostalgic tone by the end of the poem." It's a really interesting view by Izzy, and definitely something for us to consider.

It's worth saying that this is only an extract and actually this extract comes fairly early on in the text.

It's not one of the final things that we look at.

But it is a really interesting view that Izzy is coming towards that.

So we're just going to practise putting all our ideas about "The Prelude" together by writing notes in response to the following four questions about this excerpt using everything we've learned in this lesson to help form our opinions.

Firstly, I want you to consider how you think Wordsworth might have felt before writing the poem.

How do you think he felt whilst writing the poem? How do you think he might have felt after writing the poem? And ultimately, why did he choose to write it? What might he have been trying to achieve? I want you to pause the video now and take that time to answer those four questions, reflecting on everything we've looked at so far.

Checking back through your notes and your copies of the poem, and when you're ready, (snaps) hit play and we'll take some feedback.

Some lovely ideas there, everyone.

Let's take a couple of ideas from our Oak pupils to begin to understand what we could have said.

Izzy was interested in exploring the first question and said, "I think Wordsworth was feeling nostalgic during a difficult time in his life.

In writing the poem, he perhaps wanted to document his memories and try to relive them through the writing of his poem to find peace and happiness again." Whilst Andeep says, "Well, I think Wordsworth eye condition might have affected his relationship with the natural world.

He might have begun to struggle to see all the beautiful landscapes, so he is writing the poetry to almost see the beauty of nature again, just from a different perspective." I love both of these responses.

They're just a little bit different from each other.

And I think, Andeep's particularly interesting, thinking about the idea of memory as seeing something in a new way.

So, let's just summarise our understanding of the excerpt from "The Prelude." We know now that "The Prelude" is a semi-autobiographical poem about Wordsworth life and journey.

It's both literal and metaphorical in its perspective.

The poem therefore narrates the euphoria of Wordsworth time ice skating as a child with his friends amongst the stunning landscapes around him in the Lake District.

He had a deep appreciation for nature, and spent much of his time outdoors, walking.

Wordsworth was one of the most influential Romantic poets, and explored the human experience within his poetry.

I'm so glad you've been able to stop by today and explore human experience in Wordsworth's poetry.

And I hope you have enjoyed it.

Hopefully, you're beginning to understand why I so highly rate this poem, and you don't think I'm, you know, kind of low-key insane for thinking that.

But I have really appreciated your time, your huge efforts dealing with what is also really complicated text, let's not forget.

And I'm really proud of you all for the effort you've put in today.

Thank you so much, everyone, and I hope to work with you again soon.

Bye for now.