Wednesday, 6 April 2011

For Study and Discussion: My Heart Leaps Up

1. In this poem, as in "Tintern Abbey," Wordsworth thinks of his life as existing in three phases, although here the phases are somewhat different. 
a) What are three phases in the poem?

The three phases in the poem are when he is young boy, when he is a middle-aged man, and when he is old. 

b) How does his response to the rainbow connect the three phases?


His response to the rainbow connects the three phases by it symbolizing his long life and it's stages. He is so impressed with the rainbow, as he is impressed by the parts of life he has experienced.
2. The exact meaning of Wordsworth's poems often depends on a very simple, yet very important choice of words or phrases. 
 
a) What is the significance of the shift in lines 3 - 5 from "So it was" to "So it is" to "So be it"? 

"So it was" refers to what has happened in his life, and "so it is" refers to what is happening to him at this moment. "So be it" is the furture he has yet to discover. 

b) What is the meaning of line 8: "And I could with my days to be" (as opposed to "And I am sure my days will be")?


The man does not know what his future holds for him. He is quite unsure of what may happen later on in life.

3. A statement such as line 7, "The Child is father of the Man" is called a paradox, because at first it seems self-contradictory and therefore untrue, but on further thought it is seen to contain an element of truth.

a) In what sense is a child the "father" of the man he eventually becomes?


The child becomes the "father" of the man because the experiences he had when he was young shaped him to become the adult that he did. Therefore, those young experiences he underwent were the father to who he eventually became.

b) What does Wordsworth imply about the ways in which people's early experiences influence their later lives?

What you experience when you are young helps shape you as a person as you grow older. What the person in the poem is saying is that he hopes that his lessons learned will help guide him through his future. How beautiful!

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