Views on Childhood My Heart Leaps Up by William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth once wrote a poem called My Heart Leaps Up in which he claims that â€Å"The Child is father of the Man;† this quote provides a basic understanding of his views on childhood (Allison 240). Wordsworth saw children having a close connection to both god and nature, this connection is explained by the theory of transmigration of souls (which claims that children experience preexistence; a period in which they share the company of god while waiting to be conceived). According to Wordsworth, children were also provided with insight into the world which was gradually lost as they matured into adults. Wordsworth’s poetry is key to understanding the romantic view of childhood as a period where the senses are heightened as well as the†¦show more content†¦Once the young Wordsworth rows towards the summit he describes it as â€Å"huge and mighty forms, that do not live/ like living men, moved slowly† (Allison 236). This second depiction of the sc ene is aided by Wordsworth’s imagination which sees the summit move slowly (an image that haunts him). The same type of description can be found in Ode: Intimations to Immortality, Tintern Abbey, I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud, and many more. This sense of wonder is lost to the child as he matures into adulthood during which the world loses its splendour. However, adults may revisit their childhood memories to view the world as it once was to them through spots of time. In this sense children are superior to adults because they are able to the world as purely as they ever will. Much like their sense of wonder at the world, children also lose their heightened senses as they mature into adults. Children, in Wordsworth’s view, are superior to adults in their heightened senses, thoughts, feelings, and motion. Adults often access moments in which they experience heightened senses, thoughts, and feelings through spots of time. However the aforementioned is easily accessed by children because God grants them â€Å"the elements of feeling and thought† (Allison 236). These elements allow children to have different experiences of the world than those of adults. These experiences later on turn into spots of time for them to revisit. Wordsworth describesShow MoreRelatedIn William Wordsworth’S Poem â€Å"My Heart Leaps Up,† The Poet1628 Words   |  7 PagesIn William Wordsworth’s poem â€Å"My heart leaps up,† the poet is writing about the beauty and the simplicity of nature. Wordsworth manages to say a lot in the short nine lines that this poem consists of. Like much of Wordsworth’s work, this is a poem about nature. Specifically, he is speaking about seeing a rainbow in the sky. 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