Passage
One summer evening (led by her)1 I found
A little boat tied to a willow tree
Within a rocky cave, 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; for above
Was nothing but the stars and the grey sky.
She was an elfin pinnance;2 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.
(1850)
1. Nature.
2. A boat.
Select an Answer
In lines 1-7, which of the following devices is used to present nature, the boat, and the mountain echoes?
Personification
Apostrophe
Rhyme
Paradox
Simile
View Correct Answer
Choice (A) is correct. “Personification” is the attribution of human qualities to an object or abstraction. Nature, the boat, and the mountain echoes are all personified to some degree in lines 1-7. The speaker first refers to nature as “her” (“led by her”), then calls the cave the boat’s “home” and refers to the boat as “her” (“unloosed her chain”), and finally refers to “the voice/Of mountain echoes.” The speaker’s words subtly convey the impression that nature, the boat, and the mountain echoes are like human characters in the episode and are not merely things.