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.
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.
Notes
Composed on 26th March 1802.
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Comments
1 - 14 of 14
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Confussion
these are really nice words but i cant understand why the Wordsworth compare the rainbow with his life (child, Man and when he should be old) but one thing is superb, the line No. 7
"The Child is father of the man;"
i really can't understand the exact meaning of it that what poet mean here, but its give me an idea; a very realistic idea, that its true, and the last two lines are really heart touching;
"And i wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety."
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"The Rainbow" poem by william wordsworth
From guest R.Subalakshmi (contact)
This poem is an interesting and an easily readable poem. It gets memorised easily even for a small child. the is the best work by wordsworth according to me. -
Great stuff
From guest Mike (contact)
Wish I woulda thought of that *wink*. I like rainbows, and so had to read this. "child is father of the man", meaning our inner child directs our actions, no doubt??? 'natural piety' a nice thought, or reverence of nature, not dictated by human preachers. -
From guest Alexandra (contact)
william wodsworth believed that peoples souls knew everything possible before being forced into the flesh; at the moment of birth one simply forgets everything his soul once knew. also, he lived his life believing as soon as one stops reveling in the marvalous miracles of nature, their death is marked. therefore, when he states the child is father of the man he is explicating his belief that the child is in constant astonishment with life unlike the father who has become immune to these day to day revelations. so, with that being said, the man should be learning from the appreciative attitude that the child has- in doing that, the two switch places of importance. the man no longer is guiding the child, the child is guiding the man. -
From guest Matt (contact)
The child is father of the man simply refers to the inevitable decline of the elderly. Therefore the child always inherits the earth so to speak, in my opinion. -
Apology
From guest Kwamboka Nyambati (contact)
I just love the poem and want to encouraged someone with these beautiful words. Thankyou. -
From guest Geoff (contact)
"The Chils id father of the man" The child knows more of life because the child is nearer it's previous state (the existance of his soul), and the man has drifted away from experience. Hence the child being of higher status to it's elder. -
child-father
From guest herlin (contact)
about "The Rainbow poem" especialy for the 7th line, it mighthave 2 means: 1. child will be same with his father,or let say, child have all the thing and father's characters.2,child faced to his or her father as what he wantto be.... to step the days. what do u think about this? thx -
School
From guest mike (contact)
im an eighth grade student and my english teacher is makeing the class memorize this poem for the final exam -
The child is father of the man
From guest Abby (contact)
I think that the line "The child is father of the man" is referring to Jesus. Jesus is the child of God, and he is also a "father" to man as well. It's just an assumption, and my personal opinion of that line -
On the Child being father of the Man
On the Child being father of the Man
Hello, Mazen.
I think your question is an important one; I myself have been bewildered by that line ever since I first read the poem when I was 13. Surprisingly, line 7, "The Child is father of the Man," is also the most often quoted line from this poem; yet it somehow remains impenetrable to me, sticking out of the rest of the poem in tone as an abberation departing from the natural, non-expository language of the poem.
What might have caused the writer to insert or to leave the anomaly? Why did he not simply write, "So was it when my life began; / So is it now I am a man; / Should I go blind to the rainbow of old, / Through the Child's eyes, let me see!"?
I can think of three factors:
1. He could have written about the naturally diminishing intuition, imagination, and feelings in response to sensation of natural phenomena such as the rainbow, the natural weakening of perceptiveness that accompanies aging, but he chose to keep to the romanticist notion of the supremacy of intuition, imagination, and feeling, which should stay as constant characteristics of the individual.
2. Romanticist poets held the idea that the primitive man and the child, being closer to nature and their natural state in which they were brought into the world compared to the "civilized man" (in terms of phylogeny) and the "grown-up man" (in terms of ontogeny), are the most pure, unadulterated, unaffected beings; hence the apex of development is supposedly reached during savagery or childhood after which humans experience a general decay in, and loss of, the ideal qualities that characterize being human according to Romanticists.
3. Faced with the obvious clash of logic, Wordsworth seems to have inserted a line, line 7, which betrayed his greatest fear: that he might some day lose the perceptive powers of the child, but that he must be reminded of the vitality of the ideal man only by inward introspection/remembrance and/or outward observation of the child-like state.
It has been said that poetic language, though it follows the rules and patterns of natural language for the most part, departs from it occasionally by intention, which has the effect of distancing the reader from what is familiar so as to bring about novel discoveries and insights that had not been generally possible prior to the composition/reading of the poem. The result might be a greater or less distancing from what we customarily perceive as real.
In the case of the Rainbow poem, the effect seems to be ambiguous. Faced with the conflicting internal logic, I do think line 7 is discordant with the rest of the poem. Wordsworth should have either reworked the rest of the poem or done away with line 7. All things considered, I think the Rainbow poem should do fine without line 7, which, incidentally, could stand alone as a 1-liner, or serve as the seed for another poetic piece, to great effect nonetheless, either way. -
The child
From guest Mazen (contact)
as I read this poem, I wondered much about the line which says ( The child is father of the man ). I could not relate it in my mind. If anyone can, then he might respectfully tell me. thanks -
refreshing
From guest Yun (contact)
What I can understand this poem from a foreigner's eye is that it pictures the fresh scene of a boy sees the rainbow. Even after many years, he can still remember it and he recalls the childhood pleasure of excitment and so on. Is that true?? -
The Child is Father to the Child
From guest sc (contact)
anyone got any suggestions on what it can mean its a pretty big oxymoron -
Nature worship
I just found this in an essay on poetry, at the 'Something Awful' website. I honestly thought it was a spoof, so 'Googled' the last line, to see if it was genuine. Mawkish twaddle devised for recitations by small children. -
natural piety
From guest Cynthia B (contact)
Building upon the idea of the child as basis for the adult we become, Wordsworth introduces "natural piety," which is reverential respect, as of a child for a parent. The last line tells us to revere the child within us by allowing him/her to participate in our adult life. Let's not be dried up, jaded, and empty by assigning no value to our youth. -
Wordsworth again..
I'm a big fan of William Wordsworth.. the poetry is always touching and beautiful... clear and pure.. I read this poem first time in school.. and since then this has been one of my favorite..
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missing some . . . see review
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 could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.
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Thanks for pointing out the omission.
It has now been corrected.
Jim
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i have always loved this poem
i studied when i was at school, third preparatory (thats errr... grade 9) i had the book since grade 7 & i read at least 10 times before studying it
i think its magnificent and beautiful...
i still enjoy reading it
Wordsworth's poetry rocks... -
A wonderful piece, I love the line
The Child is father of the man
Excellent poem and thoughts on life in genral.
Andrew -
beauty
"The Child is father of the man;
And I wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety."
What a Great piece of thought____ It's a beauty
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Overseeing his life, Wordsworth observed that what he was as a child fostered what he was later to become as a man. Also, he observed that - because of natural aging - in later years his children became his 'parents.'
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I think Danna has it right
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I think it's about rainbows and what he feels for life when he sees one? I dont know hes dead now so I guess we can just make stuff up LOL.
It's lovely though, I could hear his smile when I read it. -
It is about how Wordsworth wished to enjoy life to the fullest, experiencing the delight and wonder of natural beauty the way a child does,
The child is the father of the man... means that the things we do, learn to appriciate, as children will give birth to the adult we become, and if he loses his ability to appriciate the beauty around him, Wordsworth says it is time to die. -
what is this poem about ? please help
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