Critical Essays Analysis of The Prelude The Prelude is the greatest long poem in our language after Paradise Lost says one critic Its comparison with the great seventeenth century epic is in some respects a happy one since Milton was after Coleridge Wordsworths greatest idol The Prelude may be classed somewhat loosely as an epic it does not satisfy all the traditional qualifications of that genre The epic is customarily defined as a long narrative poem which recounts heroic actions commonly leg