Custom essays on How is the child or children presented in Wordsworth’s “We are seven”.

The poem looks like ballad or it will be better to say that it relies on aspects of the ballad tradition in its use of a refrain. The poem begins with simple, but original four lines, and with the narrator question:
A simple child, dear brother Jim,
That lightly draws its breath,
And feels its life in every limb,
What should it know of death?
The poem is built on girl’s thoughts about death and an absence of fear of death. The girl has not typical thought, because she knows that her brother and sister are dead but she consider that they are with her in everyday life.
Wordsworth shows us it in the next lines of his poem:
“How many are you, then,” said I,
“If they two are in heaven?”
Quick was the little Maid’s reply,
“O Master! we are seven.”
Child’s reasoning about death are very various – a child thinks about that, where people go, when die; when death must come; why people die et cetera. Question of death – it is one of inalienable questions of laws of the world, circumferential children, and so will proceed until the secret of human immortality will not be found. The girl in Wordsworth’s poem is happy and full of life, because she has no unnecessary stereotypes and believe only in own family and its eternal existence. It is needed to remember that there is no one concrete right answer on a question, what is death and why it comes, and why chooses an exactly certain man in some exact time and situation. In religious families, as a rule, a child knows from the birth date, that death exists not, but the soul of man is immortal. A child is educated with knowledge that God is love. In such families, as a rule, there is simply no place for the fear of death. But it can be in such way only in condition, that parents educate children wisely and realized, but not by force compel a child to go for services in a church, pray, and also frighten by torments in the hell. on the assumption of above enumerated causes the girl of Wordsworth poem was educate in the right way and author open us a simple truth that many adults have no such education and life position as this little eight years old girl has.
Moorman emphasized that “The speaker is confused and asks her how they can be seven, if two are in Conway and two gone to sea. To this, the little girl simply replies, “Seven boys and girls are we; Two of us in the churchyard lie, Beneath the churchyard tree.” The speaker says that if two are dead, then there are only five left, but the little girl tells him that their green graves are nearby, and that she often goes to sew or eat supper there while singing to her deceased siblings:
“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” (Moorman, 1968)
In the poem “We are seven” we see not only author’s attitude to the child, but also he reflected the point of view of the whole romantic period, because as we know Wordsworth is the bright representative of that period and exactly those times formed his personality and greatly influenced on his way of thinking. We see through this poem that a child is gradually selected, as an independent creature, dissociating him from the world of adults. The special world of children, in which even clothes are already sewn only for children, appears then; the special objects appear for them. It is begun to select childhood as the separate stage. Children are perceived as “little creatures”, understanding that they are defenseless, that they yet live in the world which has the special maintenance. These all changes in child’s life specify us in next times on that a child is slowly dissociated from the world of adults, but it also once more emphasized that sometimes children can be more adult than grown up person.
According to Havens “this poem epitomizes the romanticism attitude of the late 18th century. It was written after he had encountered a young girl on his travels. The narrator is shown to have a rational viewpoint as time and time again he attempts to make her realize that her siblings are dead. However he is met with frustration as the little girl openly rejects rationality and believes in immortality.” (Havens, 1941) In acknowledgement of these words we have a piece of poem that reflects all emotions in a bright way:
“But they are dead; those two are dead!
Their spirits are in heaven!”
‘Twas throwing words away; for still
The little Maid would have her will,
And said, “Nay, we are seven!”
Child’s image in literature changed from period to period and as you see romantic period has its own specific characteristics. As we already talked in the previous paragraph, the study of child’s image is not limited to the scopes of some one discipline, it goes through an original filament through many sciences and revealed in an art, religion and other spheres of public consciousness. We should think about literature for the better understanding of this question, because literature is a separate kind of art which has specific features.
We will endeavor, analyzing literature, to affect a few periods of different literature periods development. It is possible to see in literature of classicism, that childhood is perceived, as deviation from a norm of “non- maturity”. At this time representatives of such approach to literature interested in exemplary in the conduct of people. For enlighteners interest is set to childhood, together with it period has rather educate character. Literature is published for children, where the serious and scientific ideas of the world of adults try to explain to the children. Books are built in an accessible didactic, illustrated form. It was published something about 2400 such books in England between 1750 and 1814. Child’s and youth years are occupied by an all more place in elucidative autobiographies and “novels of education”, represented as a becoming period, forming of personality of hero. And only in the epoch of romanticism childhood is examined as the “precious world is in itself”.
For romanticisms a relation is inverted. Romanticism was set by the cult of child and cult of childhood. XVIII century understood a child, as an adult man in little format. With romanticisms child’s children are begun, they are valued in itself, but not as candidates in future adults. We see in children life’s etymology and first word appearance. According to Wordsworth’s poem “We are seven” in children there is a maximum of possibilities which disperse and lost later. Attention of romanticisms is directed to that in children and in child’s consciousness, that will be lost by the grown up person. “Child’s children” of romanticisms actually are quite not children, and the same conditional characters of the certain ideal world, as “happy savages” of XVIII century. Child’s innocence and spontaneity is matched against the “perverted” and cold world of the rational adult person. The self value of childhood in every way is underlined. On Wordsworth determination, a “child is a father of man”, he emphasizes that a child can in a great deal teach the grown up man. As we see from different works of literature and Wordsworth’s poems are not exception, in romantic works appears, not real, living child, but abstract character of innocence that is close to the to nature and full of life sensitiveness. Such feelings were the part of adult life, but many people forget about them and feel their lack in many life situations.
Thus, taking into account all above mentioned it is possible to conclude that the poem “We are seven” reflects the Wordsworth’s attitude to the children and he shows us not only own attitude to children, but like representative of the romantic period, he shows also attitude to children of the whole epoch and its main bright personalities. I want to mention that image of childhood is provided with deep meaningfulness at Wordsworth poems. He offers an idea that childhood appears an unsteady flowering island in the middle of the deserted sea of life. In my opinion he also in the same queue behaves to childhood, similarly as well as to old age, as simply to the moment in the rotation of times. The theme of childhood entered in our literature as sign of intensive consciousness of personality and all society on the whole.

 
Works cited:
Havens, Raymond. The Mind of a Poet. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1941.
Moorman, Mary. William Wordsworth A Biography: The Early Years 1770–1803. London: Oxford University Press, 1968.
Ruzicka, Jarmila. Why the first stanza of We are seven? A journal of academic writing, vol. 3, numb.3, 2005. id=81>
Wordsworth, William. We Are Seven. The Northon Anthology of English Literature: The Romantic Period. 7th edition .Vol. 2A. New York. Ed. W.W. Northon & Company, inc., 2000. 224-226.