William Wordsworth The Prelude

Then we have The Prelude, which is an introduction to what should have been his greatest work The Recluse. The Prelude a kind of "self-examination" in which Wordsworth obtained his subject within his own mind (Abercrombie 57). Wordsworth never finished The Recluse maybe because many of the substance that he had in mind for it was put into other works.
             Wordsworth's The Prelude is an autobiographical introduction to The Recluse it is Wordsworth's theodicy. Which was, "the ultimate goodness governing the course of his life is brought into question by his suffering and crisis of spirit, then is established by the outcome of his experience, which is represented as prototypical for the men to whom he addresses himself," (Critical Essays 127). Wordsworth felt that life was only worth living if there was some sort of meaning to it, also with the existence of physical and moral evils. .
             In Book I lines 355-362 show examples of his theodicy in which Wordsworth justifies the suffering as a necessary course towards the end of a greater good:.
             Ah me! That all.
             Regrets, vexations, lassitudes, that all.
             The thoughts and feelings which have been infus"d.
             Into my mind, should ever have made up.
             The calm existence that is mine when I.
             Am worthy of myself! Praise to the end!.
             Thanks likewise for the means!.
             Wordsworth is telling a story of his own experiences of hardships, pain, etc followed by the doubt and despair at the failure of the French revolution. Justifying these experiences as experiences that made him a man, as well as a poet (Critical Essays 128). Although throughout The Prelude Wordsworth tells of his life in the world and of his life in nature. On this second narrative level he tells the story of the soul's direct commitment with nature:.
             Fair seed-time had my soul, and I grew up .
             Foster"d alike by beauty and by fear.
             (Book I: 305-6).
             The writings of Wordsworth showed an early and continuing interest in the antithetic or areas involving nature, thus Wordsworth spent time finding the moral and theological meanings in the beautiful qualities of the landscape in contrast with the real world.