Analysis of William Wordsworth's Poem We Are Seven
William Wordsworth’s poem, We are Seven, is about a person talking to a young girl about her and her six siblings. Throughout the poem, the narrator gave the young girl a very difficult time when she persisted that simply because not all seven children were home together, or alive, they were still seven. The narrator was giving the young girl a hard time because he wanted her to remember and understand that just because she and her siblings are separated does not make them any less siblings.
Wordsworth says that two of the seven siblings are at Conway. In what way would two siblings being far from home make them be considered not siblings? Would that not be like saying to a child still in grade school that an older sibling who is at college is not really his or her sibling anymore? The narrator questions, “You say that two at Conway dwell, /And two are gone to sea, / Yet ye are seven! I pray you tell, / Sweet Maid, how this may be (Lines 25-28)?” This young girl responds, “Seven boys and girls are we; (line 30)”.
In ...
As one grows up and experiences the taste of life, opening one’s eyes to both negative and positive aspects of the world, it is common that one starts to lose their innocence little by little throughout one’s journey. The title of novel, The Catcher in the Rye (1952) by J. D. Salinger, signifies the desires of Holden Caulfield, the narrator, to preserve innocence, and the allusion to the Robert Burns poem “Comin Thro’ the Rye” further emphasizes his desires and also represents his innocence.
Walt Whitman's seventh poem in his work, Leaves of Grass, displays the subtlety with which the poet is able to manipulate the reader's emotions. In this poem there are no particular emotional images, but the overall image painted by word choice and use of sounds is quite profound. This poem, like many others written by Walt Whitman, is somewhat somber in mood, but not morose. It is serious, but not to the point of gloom. Whitman writes concerning the general idea that everything is merged together and is one. One cannot die without being born, just as one cannot be a mother without first having one. The purpose of the poem is to show those things that are real are true and holy, and even more importantly unified. In this poem he is speaking as some sort of omnipotent being, perhaps God or a soul.
The poem begins with the word “We”, which is the only line in the poem that begins in this such manor, although the word “we” is repeated six more times throughout the poem. The “we” that I believe is represented at the beginning is the unity that comes from these seven friends. When y...
The seventh tape is to Zach Dempsey, a boy she shared a class with. In this class, they had bags in the back of the room that were meant for anonymous compliments, a thing that Hannah always looked forward to. After her assault in the dinner with Marcus, Zach was there for her. But later she found out that he was removing the notes from her compliment bag. At this point, Hannah was already depressed and this just made it worse.
“To a Mouse” by Robert Burns events and purposes relate to Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. The connection between the title for the book Of Mice and Men, and the actual storyline demonstrates a poem written by poet Robert Burns. Of Mice and Men, written by Steinbeck to represent human life during that period of time, the great depression, and what people had to do to survive during that period of time. The connections between each story help you comprehend the novel better. The connection between the two poems intertwine them for these various reasons. Most notably, dreams that that no longer can happen, power/strength, powerlessness/weakness, and the inability to predict the future intertwines these two stories.
The line “We Sing sin. We Thin gin.” is in the middle of the poem “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks. Brooks was born in Topeka, Kansas in 1917, but moved to Chicago when she was young (“Gwendolyn Brooks”). Brooks was a well known poet and also a teacher; She was the first black author to win the Pulitzer Prize. Throughout her career, she received many honors and awards. Many of Brooks’ work displays a political consciousness, especially from the 1960s and later, several of her poems reflect the civil rights movement. The poem “We Real Cool” is completely different and it’s quite short with only four stanzas. It describes the modern youth and what the “cool” kids typically do. In the second line
“Come forth into the light of things, let nature be your teacher” is what William Wordsworth has preached to us. We all have places that we can feel at home with. For some, it is a trip to the east coast or the Spice Islands. A place where we can be ourselves and not have to worry about anything else that is going on in our lives. My special place is in the Big Horn Mountains where tons of different species of animals roam the cliffs, plains, and forests that are scattered for miles across. In “Tintern Abbey,” William Wordsworth has returned there after five long years away. He brings his younger sister whom he wants to appreciate the beauty just as he does. Wordsworth notices how certain things have changed, but it is still the same place that he came to love. Wordsworth is a Romantic poet. He helped start the Romantic Movement around the end of the eighteenth century. In William Wordsworth poem, “Tintern Abbey,” there are three noticeable romantic elements which are, simplicity of language, expression of intensified feelings, and responses to nature that lead to awareness of self.
Wordsworth ends the poem with the fifth stanza, a farewell to the abbey and the inspiration it has given him. He realizes that there may come a time when he may no longer be able to inspire himself with life-changing situations, and that he will not be able to run back to Tintern Abbey to find himself again. He does what he can, though. He will also be able to rely on his sister, who shared these experiences with him and in whose voice "I catch the language of my former heart, and read my former pleasures in the shooting lights of thy wild eyes" (lines 117-120). Eventually even these may fail him, and in the closing lines of the poem he consoles himself that he and his sister will be able to look back fondly and at least remember their shared time together.
William Wordsworth rejected all the traditional assumptions about the proper style, words, and subject matter for a poem during the Romanics period. When explaining his writing Wordsworth said, “There will be found in these volumes little of what is usually called poetry diction; I have taken as much pains to avoid it as others ordinarily take to produce it.” (Marshall) Because he took such a different approach to his writing, many people criticized his poems. Literary critic Harold Bloom said, “The fear of mortality haunts much of Wordsworth’s best poetry, especially in regard to the premature mortality of the Imagination and the loss of its creative joy.” Wordsworth does in fact express fear of mortality in the poems The World is too much with us, London, 1802, The Prelude, and Lines composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey.
He portrayed their innocence through their interactions with others. Whereas in Blake’s poetry the children were shown as innocent through their demeanor or through their physical appearance. An example of this would be in Wordsworth’s poem “We are Seven”, innocence was shown through the little cottage girl’s interaction with the narrator. Her innocence was described by her beauty as well as her response to the narrator. Her answers showed her innocence since she did not know much about the topic of death. She was a small eight-year-old child that only knew that she there were seven of them, and although two of her siblings were deceased she still considered them part of her family. Innocence in Wordsworth’s poetry is portrayed through the delight and happiness of the child rather than their appearance like in Blake’s writing. In his poem “Ode: Intimations of Immortality from recollections of Early Childhood”, Wordsworth describes innocence as something that is seen through the pure joy of a child. When he writes “Heaven lies about us in our infancy” (Wordsworth), he is writing about how growing up is filled with lies. As a child they are young and innocent, but as life goes on and people age their happiness and innocence
...lake and Wordsworth see the relationship between childhood and adulthood as one of difference in vision and state of mind. The two poets mirror each other in this assertion, but differ elsewhere. While Blake sees this dichotomy as one of conflict, Wordsworth feels that the two mindsets are able to coexist within the individual. The relationship between children and adults is one that is by no means new to human life. The two epochs of human existence are drastically different in their mindsets and their views of the world. In the poetry of William Blake and William Wordsworth, this difference between children and adults and their respective states of mind is articulated and developed. As a person ages, they move undeniably from childhood to adulthood, and their mentality moves with them. On the backs of Blake and Wordsworth, the reader is taken along this journey.
Wordsworth's Poetry A lot of literature has been written about motherhood. Wordsworth is a well known English poet who mentions motherhood and female strength in several of his poems, including the Mad Mother, The Thorn, and The Complaint of a Forsaken Indian Woman. This leads some critics to assume that these poems reflect Wordsworth's view of females. Wordsworth portrays women as dependent on motherhood for happiness, yet he also emphasizes female strength.
“The Spring and the Fall” is written by Edna St. Vincent Millay. The poem is about two people, the poet and her significant other that she once had love for. The poem integrates the use of spring and fall to show how the poet stresses her relationship. Of course it starts off briefly by having a happy beginning of love, but the relationship soon took a shift for the worst, and there was foreshadow that there would be an unhappy ending. “I walked the road beside my dear. / The trees were black where the bark was wet” (2-3). After the seasons changed, the poet begins to explain why the relationship was dying, and all of the bad things she endured during the relationship. So, to what extend did the poet’s heart become broken, and did she ever
Moreover, searching for the different mechanics in each of these poems makes it easier for the reader to analysis and interpret them. To begin, in “The World is Too Much with Us” the way the punctuation is fit into the poem is different since there are many semicolons between each line and one period suggesting that the poem is actually one long sentence. Then I believe the speaker to be someone who acknowledges that he too has lost connection with nature since he’s been preoccupied with other things in the world. This is proven throughout the whole poem since he talks in first person using the word “I.” The tone of this poem is angry, frustrated, and dissatisfied because of how the world has changed. The rhyme scheme is also another appealing mechanic here too since Wordsworth only uses fou...
During Wordsworth time as a poet he made it his mission to have poetry be read by not only the aristocrats but also now the common man something that has never been done. In both poems Wordsworth makes his poems relatable by incorporating themes that everyone can relate to even if they haven’t personally had that experience, although both poems do differ when it comes down to structure and form but also when trying to convey a message, these poems are important because these ideas have never been done before and now even the average Joe can finally participate in a conversation about poetry and this brings two world together.