本篇論文旨在以心理分析之角度探討華滋華斯《序曲》中被詩人比喻成母親與嬰孩一般的自然與人之間的信任和依賴感背後﹐實隱藏著他八歲即喪母的痛苦及恐懼﹐致使詩人產生以語言填滿此空虛之欲望；然而此創傷一再浮現於詩中華氏所自述的心靈成長中﹐揭露詩人之潛意識退行至童年回憶裏尋求安慰與靈感以掩蓋對分離及失落的不安。而本論文所討論的退化﹐即指成人自以為成熟的言行之中﹐常表露出童年時期之挫敗感或未被滿足之欲望；因這些被壓抑在潛意識中之欲望﹐會一再透過語言宣洩﹐讓成人彷彿回到童年受挫的場景﹐使其在心理上無法跨越兒時創傷而真正成長。佛洛依德及拉岡對孩童心理發展提供許多理論恰可解析《序曲》中母親與嬰孩譬喻之真象；因為以佛拉等人的觀點來看﹐母親正是孩童心靈世界的中心。惟有母親不在身旁的失落感才會驅使孩童訴諸語言以表達欲望。因此﹐人類之語言乃由於生命中的空虛及失落的經驗而產生；《序曲》中的大自然其實就是一個已不在之母親的理想化呈現。在童年獵遊的經驗中﹐詩人聲稱從大自然所得到的快樂常被無以名狀的恐懼所阻擾﹐正足以顯現華氏內心創傷之起浮。本論文重點針對三個主題分析華氏《序曲》中的心理退化。第二章分析此詩中所描述之孤單角色如同夢幻中人物﹐透過夢的置換與濃縮作用﹐表達出詩人心中因母親的死亡而產生對大自然(母親形象)的不信任心理。並由於孩童時期缺乏母親對其之認同﹐詩人便透過這些卑小人物的故事焦慮地質疑完整呈現自我的可能。第三章討論詩人藉語言佔據主控地位以克服失落感的欲望；但詩人聲稱受到自然啟發的想像力其實如同語言一般﹐雖能無中生有並能改變事物﹐卻只是掩蓋心中虛空的另一個虛空﹐使詩人無從掌握亦無法依靠。第四章分析《序曲》中的死亡主題。如同伊甸園神話所示﹐追求知識之欲望能使人類了解自我存在之意識﹐但也相對導致死亡的必然性。而華氏由母親的死亡知曉人必有死之命運﹐也透過文字預想了自己的死亡。尤其是詩人所述之童年回憶點滴所帶來的愉悅﹐更揭露了詩人仍困於幼年相繼失去雙親的創痛經驗中。最後在結論裏分析了華氏童年記憶中的喪母經驗是詩人生命中無法填補的空洞﹐對《序曲》這首自傳性的詩作而言﹐生命的空洞正代表了主體存在的不確定；本詩中以語言所建構的主題(即詩人理想的自我)也因此而被回憶中的創傷所顛覆。

Wordsworth's Prelude is usually deemed to be a work recording the "growth" of the poet's mind; thus The Prelude gives access to our understanding of this great Romantic poet. With Nature's inspiration, Wordsworth claims to find the glory in himself and in humanity because Nature, like a mother, always warms him with supporting tenderness. In The Prelude, the relationship between mankind and Nature is compared to that between a child and his mother. However, this comparison unintentionally reveals the unstable foundation of the poet's own belief in Nature's benevolence to him when we finds out that his mother died when he was only eight years old. This sad incident becomes a traumatic memory lurking behind his praise of Nature's kindness to human beings because it signifies a cruel withdrawal of love, which causes a sense of lack in his childhood when his subjectivity is forming. The "growth" in the poem actually disguises his desire for a recognition which he does not get in childhood. Therefore, in this thesis I will discuss how those unsatisfied wishes in childhood show us a regression in process through dreams to desire and finally to death. I adopt the Freudian and Lacanian perspectives to analyze this poem in the hope that the psychoanalytical interpretation will bring about some fruitful insights because The Prelude is generally considered a poem about the development of the poet's mind. Chapter II of this thesis will focus on the solitaries the poet describes in The Prelude. Emerging from the atmosphere of dreams, these solitaries do not simply demonstrate the poet's sympathy for human suffering; more importantly, they speak out his inner fear for Nature's caprice. Moreover, the Arab Quixote and the Blind Beggar passages serve to show his anxiety about himself and his writing. In Chapter Three, I will use Freud's famous story—fort/da game—to show that Wordsworth's efforts in writing this autobiographical poem result from an absence of his mother in his life. A desire for something lack drives him to become an author, a creator, which enables him to turn his passivity into activity with language. Moreover, imagination, with its magic power to transform normal landscape into poetry, usually plays an important part in Wordsworth's poems. However, from the Lacanian point of view, imagination becomes an effect of language and signifies only a lack out of a lack because it leads us not to an elevation of mind but only to a blank, such as in the Pass of Simplon and the Ascent of Snowdon scenes. My analysis in Chapter Four will focus on the theme of death. With Freud's "compulsion to repeat," I will discuss Wordsworth's death wish in his mischievous games. Moreover, the poet's memories seem to be a joy of fountain for him, but in this chapter I will explore his traumatic experiences in childhood actually shadow his memories with threat of loss and separation in the incidents of the "spots of time." In Chapter Five, my conclusion is that The Prelude as an autobiographical poem lays bare a lack of being in the poet's writing, for the hole left by his mother's early death keeps reminding him of a sudden withdrawal of love without any reasons even when he is praising Mother Nature for enlightening his life.