Views on Childhood: My Heart Leaps Up by William Wordsworth

Childhood is arguably the most exciting time of a person’s life. One has few responsibilities or cares, and the smallest events can seem monumentally thrilling. Often, people reflect on the memories of their youth with fondness and appreciation for the lessons they learned. Sarah Orne Jewett captures this essence perfectly in the excerpt from “A White Heron.” Jewett uses many literary devices, including diction, imagery, narrative pace, and point of view to immerse the reader in familiar feelings of nostalgia and wonder, and dramatize the plot.

The voice in this poem is one of pure happiness and innocence. In this state of joy, the infant is unaware of the world in which he lives and that awaits him. In these opening lines, we see Blake revealing the everyday modeling and structure that categorizes the world, but is absent in the simplicity and purity of childhood. The child has no name because joy needs no other name. Labeling and classification are products of organization and arrangement that the world uses to assimilate innocence into experience. Blake demonstrates that it is through this transition, that the virtue of child’s play is destroyed. Blake utilizes specific emotions such as “happy,” “joy,” “sweet,” “pretty,” “sing,” and “smile” to describe this uncorrupted state of being. There is no danger, darkness, or struggle for the infant. Instead, he exists in a care free state, free of guilt, temptation, and darkness. The birth of a child is celebrated by Blake and it stirs in us powerful emotions of peace, love, and hope.

In the poem “The Child’s Sight” by Hy Sobiloff, the speaker portrays a reflective mother, who begins to recall her own childhood days while spending fond time with her child and gains back the innocence within herself. The speaker is reminiscent of how as a child, she has the freedom to say anything as she please and no one will feel offended in any way possible. She sees her child “[saying] what [he see] when [he sees] it,” while she does not on the other hand (2). She feels restrictive in her adulthood environment, while her child is living life freely. In addition, as the speaker spends more time with her child, she is gradually regaining the innocence of a child within herself. She is “learning the child’s way [as she picks] up wood pieces

Wordsworth stood on the cliff 'not only with the sense of 'present pleasure'; (63) but he joyfully anticipated the moments 'for future years'; (65). He came back to reality and began to analyze the situation after his reminiscing. Wordsworth realized that he had lost some guidance and was searching for the presence of nature when returning to the Wye. He remembered when he used to wander and roam as free as a roe but as he matured he felt content with tapping into his memories of his youth because as Wordsworth stated, 'That time is past? other gifts have allowed; for such loss, I would believe, abundant recompense'; (83-88). He realized that he was involved with more mature things in life because he had become more intelligent through the years and saw nature in the light of his intelligence. Yet, he insisted that he was 'still a lover of the meadows and the woods, and the mountains; and of all that we behold from this green earth'; (102-105) but indeed, in a more composed way.

For some people, their childhood may have been the best time of their lives, but for others, it could just be many years of memories they dread remembering. Regardless of how someone feels about it, childhood is a critical part of life. In the poems “Birches” by Robert Frost and “Hanging Fire” by Audre Lorde, the authors explore what it is like to be a child and the major transition from childhood to adulthood. While Frost does so through the voice of an adult, Lorde chose to accomplish this from a child’s perspective. Although, the speakers are not the only aspects of the poem that sets them apart. In “Birches”, Frost describes childhood as a simplistic, carefree and innocent time, while in “Hanging Fire”, Lorde emphasizes the never ending struggles children face when growing up. However, the speakers of the poems do share a common challenge in maintaining personal relationships throughout childhood and beyond.

The difference between a child and an adult’s state of mind is their naivety and their innocence. A child is born unknowing to all of the troubles and hardships in the world. As they grow up, their life experiences make them lose innocence as they come to realize the realities in the world. Charles Dickens and Harper Lee use the literary elements of symbolism and character development to exemplify the theme that finding one’s identity comes from childhood experiences in the novels To Kill a Mockingbird and Great Expectations.

Wordsworth’s famous and simple poem, “I wandered lonely as a cloud,” expresses the Romantic Age’s appreciation for the beauty and truth that can be found in a setting as ordinary as a field of daffodils. With this final stanza, Wordsworth writes of the mind’s ability to carry those memories of nature’s beauty into any setting, whether city or country. His belief in the power of the imagination and the effect it can have on nature, and vice a versa, is evident in most of his work. This

Children are always portrayed in books as angelic beings that are as close to perfect as they come. Many would suggest that this is not true, that children can be just as manipulative and conniving as adults. They cry when they do not get their way and throw tantrums that are quite obscene. However, the idea of this angelic child did not com into play until the 17th century. The poets William Blake and William Wordsworth are the two poets that coined this idea of the child. In the poems of these two authors, children are portrayed as innocent and pure beings and are closer to God than adults. Although these two poets have very different views of what children are like such as their interactions with adults, their perspective on life, and their

According to Alan Richardson, childhood gained a central position through Romantic Literature, due to its artistic and reinvigorating movement during the eighteenth century. The supreme faculty of mind is reason by stressing strong emotions and imagination, which is the key reason to the shaping of creative power. Childhood acquired a sense of spirituality attached to its phenomenon; it became increasingly valued by adults, since children represented hope and progress within society. Childhood therefore became the supreme symbol of celebrating the cult of nature, the purity of the mind

An analysis of poems discussing the different ideas of infancy and what infancy and childhood means to different people. The ideas of infancy vary across the poems from being a curse to the family to being a blessing from the heavens or even a key to break out of the boundaries set by reality. The poets use various literary devices such as metaphors, similes and different poem structure to convey the message that they carry. Each poem has its own viewpoint on infancy. On the whole four of the poems, “Infant Joy” –William Blake, “You’re” – Sylvia Plath, “Once upon a time” – Gabriel Okara and “Piano” by D.H. Lawrence all have a more positive view towards infancy whereas, “ Infant Sorrow” – William Blake and “Prayer before birth” – Louis MacNeice show a more pessimistic side towards infancy. Despite the fact that each poem has its own different point of view on the subject of infancy, they all seem to share one thought which is the fact that infancy represents innocence and in some cases a fresh start.

Ground-breaking, momentous, and a time of great struggle, the Industrial Revolution was famous for its innovations and infamous for the sobering reality it inflicted upon the standard family. Mid-18th century Britain brought poverty to everyday urban workers. With it, came an increase in child labor like never seen before. In order for a normal family to survive in the urban lifestyle, all members of a family had to work. This included children as young as four years to work as chimney sweepers, miners, and most popularized in 18th century Britain, factory workers. By the year 1800, children under the age of 14 in Britain’s factories accounted for 50% of the labor force (“Industrial Revolution, Child Labor”). Though the number continued to grow, all did not go unaccounted for. Romanticism, an effort opposite the movement, gave recognition to the emotional conflicts overlooked. Romanticism shed light on the daily struggles of the everyday man, woman, and the most neglected up until that period of time, the child. Throughout history, others have written about childhood, but Romantic poets began to question what it meant to be a child. The question, though not answered directly, later became revealed in their works where it exposed their belief systems. The role of the child in British Romantic Poetry represents the early life of Romantic poets, and the qualities they possessed in childhood.

We are seven, a poem written by William Wordsworth, paints the perfect picture of innocence, in all its forms. It tells of a man conversing with a young girl, inquiring about her family. She, without fail or any hesitation, responds that she is one of seven children; however, two have died. This is ultimately why the man is confused throughout the entire work. I am going to explore the notion of naïveté in Wordsworth's, We are seven, by analyzing the many different aspects of innocence in the young girl and the man and contrasting with the element of experience.

'In children 's literature the notion and construct of 'childhood ' became an influential force...it became associated with freedom...and play; focusing on educating children malleablly. '

In the sestet, Wordsworth switches the focus from the divinity of nature to the divinity of childhood. Although Wordsworth is addressing his daughter specifically, his view of her as divine can be applied to all children. While childhood is regarded as a time of ignorance, where serious thoughts are seldom entertained, the Romantics also view childhood as a time of innocence. Wordsworth addresses both these views in "It Is a Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free". By declaring that, eventhough his daughter is "untouched by solemn thought, [she] is not therefore less divine"(10-11), Wordsworth is saying that a child's ignorance is his or her innocence. As the poem continues, the child is portrayed as "[lying] in Abraham's bosom all the year" (12), suggesting that her soul is blessed by God. Wordsworth's use of the image of the Temple's inner shrine is perfect in

My earliest memory I remember as a child is around the age of two years old. My Mother would put me in the playpen but I refused to stay. I was able to climb out of it. I remembered my Mother’s face expression that let me know that I better not climb out of the playpen again. This was one of my earliest memories of her setting her boundaries. When I got older, my Mother told me about the situation. She needed to clean and/or cook so she had to put me in the playpen. At the age of two years old, I just wanted to explore and didn’t want to stay in the playpen. This set the tone between us moving forward.