Verbs of Perception and Cognition in The Prelude

Abstract

One feature of the verbs appearing in The Prelude by William Wordsworth （1770-1850） is that verbs of perception and cognition are large in number. I have isolated a sentence structure by using a verb of perception, ‘felt : I felt X. This structure is the form employed when Wordsworth perceives all things in the universe. The vertical axis of ‘felt’ is realized by verbs such as ‘see,’ ‘look’ and ‘hear.’ The axis of ‘X’ is realized with anything that stimulates the young poet’s emotions. What things and phenomena is he attracted to? What comes after verbs of perception syntactically? What objects do the verbs take lexically? What adverbial expressions co-occur with the verbs? These questions will be solved by closely observing the verbs of perception and their surroundings. I observe the objects of the visual and auditory verbs; the poet’s emotional state while seeing and hearing; and the modifiers of the two sensory organs, eyes and ears.