Search results
We Are Seven. By William Wordsworth. ———A simple Child, That lightly draws its breath, And feels its life in every limb, What should it know of death? I met a little cottage Girl: She was eight years old, she said; Her hair was thick with many a curl. That clustered round her head. She had a rustic, woodland air, And she was wildly clad:
- Summary of We Are Seven
- Detailed Analysis
- Conclusion
- William Wordsworth Background
We Are Seven by William Wordsworth begins with the speakerasking what a child, who is clearly full of life, could possibly know about death. At first, the poet makes it seem as if the child doesn’t know anything about death This is due to the fact that she does not seem to understand that her siblings have died. The little girl continues to spend t...
Stanza One
The speaker opens with a question, one that resonates with most if not all people. Why should a child ever have to experience death? Immediately, any reader who’s ever known the untimely death of a child, or experienced a young child lose a mother, father, or sibling, identifies with the speaker.
Stanzas 2-3
The speaker then begins to describe a young girl with whom he is speaking. He describes her “clusters” or curls around her head and her very light eyes. Once the reader has the image of a beautiful little girl in mind, he/she can imagine the conversationtaking place and thereby further identify with the speaker. When the speaker claims that the beauty of the young girl made him “glad”, the reader begins to feel the effect this little girl had on the speaker.
Stanzas 4-6
The speaker begins a conversation with this young lively girl in which he asks her how many siblings she has. The girl replies that she is one of seven. She then explains that “two [were at] Conway”, or going to school, and that “two [were] out to sea” and finally that two were buried “in the church-yard” and that she alone lived with her mother in a home not too far from where her two siblings were buried. Within the innocent, light-hearted answers of the young girl, there are embedded reali...
As We Are Sevenprogresses, the reader can clearly see that the child has a much more hopeful idea of death than the stranger she was speaking with. It was hard for the child to see her siblings laid in the ground, but she never felt as if they were gone. She still felt close to them, and she kept them alive in her heart by engaging in activities wi...
William Wordsworth himself suffered the loss of his mother at age eight, the same age as this little girl in We Are Seven. He also lost his father when he was thirteen. It is possible that the speaker in We Are Sevensymbolizes the adult version of William Wordsworth, while the eight-year-old symbolizes his younger self. Wordsworth lost his two chil...
Quick was the little maid's reply, "O master! we are seven." "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!" This poem is in the public domain.
- “We Are Seven” Summary.
- “We Are Seven” Themes. Childhood Innocence vs. Adult Understanding. See where this theme is active in the poem. The Nature of Death.
- Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “We Are Seven” Lines 1-4. ———A simple Child, That lightly draws its breath, And feels its life in every limb, What should it know of death?
- “We Are Seven” Symbols. Seasons. See where this symbol appears in the poem.
We are Seven" is a poem written by William Wordsworth and published in his Lyrical Ballads. It describes a discussion between an adult poetic speaker and a "little cottage girl" about the number of brothers and sisters who dwell with her. The poem turns on the question of whether to account two dead siblings as part of the family.
We Are Seven. A simple child, That lightly draws its breath, And feels its life in every limb, What should it know of death? I met a little cottage girl: She was eight years old, she said; Her hair was thick with many a curl That clustered round her head.
People also ask
Who wrote the poem we are seven?
Why did Wordsworth write we are seven?
What is William Wordsworth most famous poem?
Is 'we are seven' a good poem?
Feb 1, 2021 · By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘We Are Seven’ is one of the most famous poems by William Wordsworth to appear in the 1798 collection Lyrical Ballads, the book which he co-authored with Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Indeed, after ‘Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey’, ‘We Are Seven’ is probably Wordsworth’s most ...
