1805 Prelude, Book IV lines 247 to 264

The passage begins "As one who hangs down-bending" and it ends with the period in the middle of line 264 ". . . "With like success."

Read the passage carefully, then choose what you consider to be the most important ideas about memory and poetry in it. Write an organized, well-structured essay explaining how those ideas are presented in the poetry, what you take them to mean, and why you think they are important. Be sure to keep your focus on what is in the lines within the passage itself. You are not just summarizing or paraphrasing, but interpreting, explaining. You can inform your interpretation with any ideas about memory, art, Wordsworth, and poetry as long as they are directly relevant to explaining the most important ideas in these 17 lines.