Name: Võ Thị Hoàng Oanh Class: 08CNA08 William Wordsworth (1770-1850) is known as the interpreter of nature He was born in Cockermouth, Cumberland in 1770 and spent the great part of his life in the mountains of the Lake District, where he was very deeply influenced by the natural beauty of the country, and was always in sympathy with the humble people Nature, in all its forms, was important to Wordsworth He uses his poetry to look at the relationship between nature and human life and to explore the belief that nature can have impact on our emotional and spiritual lives One of his famous poetry is “the Rainbow” ,written on the night of March 26, 1802 Earlier that day, he had written "To The Cuckoo" He was in Dove Cottage,Grasmere with his wife, Mary After he wrote it he often thought about altering it, but decided to leave it as it was originally written It was published as part of Poems in Two Volumes in 1807 William Wordsworth's piece, "The Rainbow," offers an intriguing look into the human soul This poem tells us about the natural beauty Standing at only ten lines, the poem details a journey through Wordsworth's philosophical beliefs In this short lyric, the 'rainbow' symbolizes the life sustaining and life nourishing goodness of Nature The sight of the beautiful rainbow which he saw when he was only a child is deeply etched in his memory and the same joy that he experienced when he saw it as a child continues to remain with him through his adulthood He desires that this same childhood joy should continue to sustain him even in his old age Wordsworth says that he would rather die than not being able to experience the same joy that he experienced when he saw the rainbow when he was a small boy after he becomes an old man The memory of the beautiful rainbow and its pleasant associations form the link between his childhood, adulthood and his old age: past, present and future Wordsworth concludes the poem by expressing the desire that each day of his existence be linked with the next by beautiful and simple natural sights like the rainbow My heart leaps up when I behold A Rainbow in the sky: So was it when my life began; So is it now I am a man; So be it when I shall grow old, Or let me die! The Child is father of the man; And I wish my days to be Bound each to each by natural piety Although it appears simplistic, this poem details many complex ideas Wordsworth's opening lines explain how: "My heart leaps up when I behold / A rainbow in the sky" (12) Wordsworth expresses his desire to be a part of the rainbow and its magnificence He is overjoyed at nature, a common theme in all of his work, but what's more is that he states: "So was it when my life began; / So it is now I am a man This line insinuates that Wordsworth found life to be beautiful and still believes so to this day ; / So be it when I shall grow old, / Or let me die!" Wordsworth claims that he would rather die than lose his wonder of the world As a child, ("when my life began") Wordsworth felt the same way about rainbows and nature as he does now, completely awestruck and in reverence Moreover, Wordsworth hopes his adoration of nature will continue as he matures, even to his death bed If not, Wordsworth would rather die prematurely The last three lines contain one of Wordsworth's most famous phrases: "The Child is father of the Man; /and I could wish my days to be / Bound each to each by natural piety" (7-10) Wordsworth is happy enough to have kept his appreciation of nature and only wishes it will last him forever, in "natural piety." With the line: "The Child is father of the Man" This line suggests that the child produces the man The man is made from childhood experiences Wordsworth evokes a number of ideas To start, Wordsworth details how the child is father simply through greatness The child falls in love with nature as soon as it is born This admiration is both an inherent trait as well as something to be gained when the child first looks at the world in its majesty Thus, in one sense, the child is father to the man because it has an understanding of nature's pure energy, while men can lose this awareness all too easily (as they lose their childlike innocence) Men who not appreciate nature therefore are in such a regressed state that they cannot fully comprehend God or what it means to achieve greatness (understanding where all of God's materialization appears in the world) In another sense, children are intrinsically innocent, and this innocence is exemplified in understanding the value of nature and God, in relation to the human soul Because children are aware of the value in nature (they still have their innocence after all), they and their soul are on a higher level with God than man can attain, and thus are: "father of the Man." Wordsworth himself is consequently in quite the interesting predicament Although he is no child, he has kept his appreciation of nature and often takes pleasure in comparing it to God (see his sonnet: "It is A Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free"), but this is in slight contradiction to his idea that children can attain higher moral perfection than man For, if Wordsworth can grasp the concept that nature is important to recognize the value of God (in relation to the human soul), then has he reverted to a childhood state? Has he achieved human greatness just in viewing this rainbow and wishing that his love for it will never fade? The 7th line “the child is the father of the man” is the most important line in the whole poem It describes the lot of complicated ideas in these few words A child loves nature, plays with it unlike the mature people who destroy the nature Mature people should learn from the children to love nature So, child is the father of the man Although Wordsworth has an appreciation of nature, he is still a man, and has thus lost his innocence As one matures, innocence cannot be preserved, the loss of it is unpreventable, and thus, despite Wordsworth being conscious of nature's majesty and the connection to God, children are still "father of the man" simply because they have their innocence (for the time being) and are on a higher level That is not to say however that children have attained human greatness just in being children (they can not possibly see and understand where all of God materializes yet), but rather, they are more keen to understand and eventually achieve greatness than man can ever hope to gain Overall, this is a brilliant poem that showcases some of Wordsworth's most interesting ideas The poet used the literary device-paradox- most important concept in this poem The speaker understands the importance of staying connected to one's own childhood, stating: "I could wish my days to be / Bound each to each by natural piety Wordsworth chooses the word "piety" to express the bond he wishes to attain (and maintain) with his childhood self, because it best emphasizes the importance of the bond His readers would have been accustomed to the idea of piety in the religious sense, and would thus have been able to translate the meaning behind the word to an understanding of the power of the bond Wordsworth hopes to attain Some commentators have speculated that Wordsworth felt such joy because the rainbow indicates the constancy of his connection to nature throughout his life Others have said that it celebrates "the continuity in Wordsworth's consciousness of self" Many commentators also draw parallels to the rainbow of Noah and the covenant that it symbolized Wordsworth's use of the phrase "bound each to each" in the poem also implies the presence of a covenant Some commentators have drawn further parallels with the story of Noah William Blake disliked Wordsworth's use of the phrase "natural piety" Blake believed that man was naturally impious and therefore Wordsworth's phrase contradicted itself The format of "the Rainbow" gives the poem a somewhat staccato feeling and forces the reader to pause at important points in the poem For instance, the two short lines of the poem are both quite significant First, "A rainbow in the sky" harkens back to God's promise to Noah signifying their bond, and foreshadows the speaker's wish to be "Bound by natural piety." The sixth line, "Or let me die!" shows the strength of the speaker's convictions Some cultures believe that the rainbow is a bridge to the afterlife, one for dead heroes to cross to reach paradise, or Valhalla The poem as a whole is symbolic of the beauty of nature and Romanticism The concept of the rainbow can be construed as hope, promises or even a fulfilled dream  ... viewing this rainbow and wishing that his love for it will never fade? The 7th line ? ?the child is the father of the man” is the most important line in the whole poem It describes the lot of complicated... contradicted itself The format of "the Rainbow" gives the poem a somewhat staccato feeling and forces the reader to pause at important points in the poem For instance, the two short lines of the poem are... will last him forever, in "natural piety." With the line: "The Child is father of the Man" This line suggests that the child produces the man The man is made from childhood experiences Wordsworth